


House of Cards

by aebbe



Series: The Dark League [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alcohol, Family Drama, Friendship, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, Mentioned Sexual Situations, Multi, Swearing, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-02-12 14:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12961704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aebbe/pseuds/aebbe
Summary: All Scorpius Malfoy has ever wanted to do is keep his head down. But when his little sister is sorted into Gryffindor - the house of his arch-rival, James Potter - and rumours start flying around about him and Lily Potter (he hardly knows the girl, he really doesn't), a quiet year seems off the cards. Then a Muggle schoolgirl is attacked, and the Malfoy family is caught in the middle of the rising tension. With the Muggle and magical worlds set to collide, old rivalries may have to be forgotten.Originally published on ff.net. Can be read as a standalone, but is also the first main story in a loose series.





	1. Friends and Enemies

**Author's Note:**

> This multi-chap is completed on ffn, at 29 chapters. I'm slowly working on copying my stories over, with small edits here and there. All my stories are on the same timeline, and link together. This is the first of a series that follows one overall plot, although different stories follow different characters within that, and each has its own resolution. This one has multiple main characters, and it isn't pairing-focused, but there's plenty of romance in there (don't expect all the relationships here to be endgame ships, though).
> 
> I really appreciate feedback, so please leave comments! And you can find me on tumblr at aebbeswriting.tumblr.com.

Scorpius Malfoy followed his father and his younger sister through the crowds at King's Cross Station. Their father was pushing a large trolley, while Iseult clutched a cat basket to her chest and tried to stay close to him. She looked so small and skinny in her fluffy, pink jumper—it was hard to believe he’d once been that young and nervous. At the same time, it was hard to believe he only had two more years left at school. Time was weird like that.

His father paused at the barrier, and looked round.

"Quickly, Scorpius," he said, and gestured at the wall between Platform Nine and Platform Ten.

Scorpius glanced around, saw nobody watching, and, in one swift movement, stepped sideways through the barrier. A few moments later, his father and Issie followed him into the heaving, shrieking mass that was Platform Nine and Three Quarters on the first of September.

"Good morning, Draco," a voice said beside them.

Scorpius glanced at the man who had spoken. Theodore Nott. His son, Searle, was in Scorpius’s house and year—unfortunately. Mrs Nott was friends with Aunt Daphne, but Scorpius didn't think Dad liked Mr and Mrs Nott much more than Scorpius liked Searle. Not that he'd ever admit it; the two men were smiling politely at each other.

"Morning, Nott." Draco Malfoy nodded, and began to walk past, but Mr Nott started speaking again.

"So, your youngest's starting Hogwarts, is she?"

Their father sighed, an almost imperceptible sound. "Yes, that's right. Scorpius, please help your sister with her things."

"Graham Montague's little girl's starting this year too." Mr Nott looked at Iseult and smiled thinly. "That'll be nice for you. A friend."

The words were light, but there was always an undercurrent of something insulting in Theo Nott's voice. Scorpius was pretty sure, from the tight set of Dad’s lips, that he thought the same, but then, Dad was always tense on occasions like this. He hated these yearly trips; there were too many people he didn't want to see.

"No Astoria today?" Mr Nott glanced around, his eyebrows raised, as if Mum might appear out of the steam.

"No." Dad voice was short, and Scorpius thought that his patience might be running out. "She wasn't feeling quite herself."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Give her my best." Theo Nott smiled again.

"I will. Thank you."

And that was a pretty typical conversation between Dad and his old school-mates. Lots of fake smiles and pretending to like each other. It was worse since last year, when Theo Nott had tried to get Dad to join their new political group, and Dad had refused. He wasn't the only one who had declined, but the Notts weren't the only ones who had joined the League either, and the whole thing was causing tension in the Pureblood circles.

As Nott moved on, their father turned to Iseult, who was standing nervously by his side.

"Well, Issie, are you ready?" he asked her. "No need to look so worried. All you need is a bit of confidence. Keep your head up, and don't take any nonsense from anyone."

She stared at him, but said nothing. This sort of thing was not Dad’s element.

"And Scorpius will be there to look out for you." Dad glanced sternly at Scorpius, as if to impress this responsibility on him. 

As if he would ever not look out for her. However, he took pity on his father, and looked at Iseult.

"You'll be fine. Look, there are loads of other first-years, just as nervous as you."

She looked up at him. "Can I sit with you?"

He smiled at her. "Course you can."

This seemed to cheer Iseult up, and she hugged their father goodbye with a smile, and insisted that he say goodbye properly to Tosca, her kitten, who was curled up in the basket. Scorpius had to hide a grin as Dad did what he was told with a bit of a bad grace, looking around himself in a clearly self-conscious way.

~~~

"See that?"

Harry Potter looked up from the conversation he was having with his daughter (the boys had already disappeared with their friends), and looked at where Ron was indicating, in time to see Draco Malfoy depositing a kiss on the head of a small black kitten. He laughed.

"I suppose fatherhood makes idiots of us all in the end."

Hermione also looked around. "That must be their little girl, starting first year. What's her name again?"

Harry shrugged. "Don't think I ever heard it."

"I wonder where Astoria is," Hermione said.

"Well, I expect the kid'll be another chip off the old block," Ron remarked. "Young Scorpius seems to be following in the family footsteps—Slytherin prefect, isn’t he?"

"I don't know," Lily said. "Scorpius is okay, you know, Uncle Ron."

"Friend of yours, is he?" Ron asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"No." She shrugged. "I don't really know him. He’s two years above me. But Al says he's all right, and he seems like an okay guy. Not like you always say his dad was."

"He's a Malfoy!" Ron began, with heat.

"For goodness' sake, Ron!" Hermione broke in. "She didn't say she was going to marry him. There's no need to overreact. I'm glad he's not as bad as his father," she told Lily.

"Who's not as bad as his father?" Harry's oldest son, James, breezed up. "Hugo?" He grinned at his uncle.

"Ha!" Ron scowled at him. "No, your sister was just telling us about what a lovely person young Scorpius Malfoy is."

" _Malfoy?_ " James stared at Lily.

Lily turned pink under the attention, and looked cross.

"I didn't say that. I've barely ever spoken to him! All I said was that he seems okay, and he does. He's not mean, and he’s always really polite."

"The perfect gentleman," her brother agreed sarcastically. "Unlike the rest of us, presumably. Come on, Lily. You can't honestly like the smarmy little shit?"

"James, language!" Ginny interjected. "There are children on this platform."

"I don't like him!" Lily said. "I told you, I don’t know him. But I tell you something, when you two throw hexes at each other, it's never him who picks the fight…"

Perhaps fortunately, the train blew its whistle at that point, and there was a mad scramble to say goodbye and get onto the train, then they were off, and their parents were left behind, smiling and waving. 

But as the train pulled out, Ginny frowned.

"I hope James doesn't really go around picking fights with the Malfoy boy."

"I hope he does," Ron said heartily. "And I hope he beats him every time."

But Ginny shook her head. "It's a bit too much like bullying. That's the sort of behaviour you'd expect… well, from a Malfoy, not from James. Jamie's seventeen; he's too old for silly fights. And he's a year older than Scorpius, too. I don't like that kind of behaviour."

Harry, standing beside her, was silent. It was reminding him a little too strongly of certain things he knew about James's namesake, Harry's own father. Jamie had always tended a certain way, of course. He thought rules were there to be broken, and there had been... incidents at school. 

But he wasn’t the only one in the family like that, and Harry had felt safe in the knowledge—or perhaps it had only been an assumption—that James’s mischief was just that. Harmless pranks, occasionally taken too far, to be sure, but no worse than what, say, Fred and George had got up to. Or Harry himself, for that matter.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Ginny," Hermione said. "They're just a couple of teenagers, and I expect Scorpius Malfoy is well able to hold his own. Think of us when we were at school; I seem to remember someone being a bit of an expert with a Bat Bogey Hex."

"I suppose you're right." Ginny laughed, a little reluctantly, and let the matter drop.

But the exchange left Harry feeling disturbed, and wondering whether he really ought to enquire further into some of James's doings at Hogwarts.

~~~

Scorpius and Iseult were just entering an empty carriage, as the train pulled out of the station, when a ringing voice came from behind them.

"Hey, Scorpius!"

Scorpius turned, and found Calypso Zabini coming towards him up the swaying train corridor.

"Hello!" she continued, as she reached them. "Hey, Issie! Looking forwards to starting Hogwarts?"

Iseult nodded shyly.

"How were your holidays?" Scorpius asked, as they all entered the carriage. 

Calypso pulled a face.

"Oh, all right. Dad kicking off as usual, and Rowan making a nuisance of herself. No change. How about you?"

"Pretty good, really," he replied. "Had to spend the odd weekend with the grandparents, which is never a load of laughs. But most of it was all right. Have you seen Danny?"

"Yes." She glanced over her shoulder. "He was with me, but he got waylaid by Mr Perfect Prefect, Albus Potter, for telling a bunch of first-years about the tasks you have to complete before they let you in the gates."

"That is a bit mean, Cal," Scorpius commented.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, I forgot, you're a prefect too. Aren't you supposed to be patrolling the corridors with Potter or something?"

"Probably. I will later. Though not with Potter if I can help it."

"The fucking annoying thing," she went on, "is that James Potter's probably sitting somewhere, right now, telling much worse stories than anything Danny could come up with, and he's not going to get into trouble for it."

Scorpius smiled faintly. "No, I can't see him being too happy with his little brother telling him off."

In Scorpius's opinion, James Potter was one of the worst things in residence at Hogwarts, ranking somewhere below the Giant Squid, and only marginally higher—and frequently more irritating—than the colony of Blast-Ended Skrewts in the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He didn't really want to talk about Potter, so he was quite glad when Iseult interrupted.

"There aren't really any tests you have to do before they let you in, are there?"

"No, not really." Scorpius looked at her, pulling his face into a serious expression. "Apart from battling the Giant Squid, obviously-"

She hit him on the arm, and he broke off, laughing. At that moment, the door opened, and a head of sandy-coloured hair came round it and grinned at them.

"Good, I've found you." The boy attached to the head came into the carriage and threw himself down beside Calypso.

"Hey, Dan," Scorpius greeted his friend. "Did Potter give you a detention?"

Dannicus Urquhart laughed.

"No, but I was bloody tempted to give him a blistered face. Self-righteous dick. I thought Albus was okay, but he's taking this prefect thing way too seriously. I'm glad you're not like that, Scorp. I'd disown you if you were. _'You're a sixth year, you should be setting an example, not frightening a bunch of children…'_ " Dannicus did a passable imitation of Albus Potter, and his friends laughed.

"Albus is all right," said Scorpius. "He's right anyway, Danny; it's mean to tease the kids."

Danny scowled at him. "You want to watch it, or it'll be you with the blistered face."

"And you with the detention," retorted Scorpius, although they were both laughing.

"Can you really give people detentions, Scorp?" Iseult asked.

"Oh yes," Calypso told her. "So you'd better watch your step, young Issie; with him and Potter patrolling the school, the law will be well and truly laid down."

Iseult smiled uncertainly, as if she wasn't sure whether it was meant to be a joke, and clutched her cat basket closer to her.

"How was your holiday, Dan?" Scorpius asked.

Dannicus sighed, looking uncharacteristically serious. "Not great, to be honest. Mum and Dad have gone all political and are getting excited over that stupid League. They kept having people round to talk about it, or going off to meetings. And it's a load of disgusting crap. They want to pretend it's something new, but it's not. _Pureblood Rights._ I mean, since when do we need that? They just don't like that they can't do whatever the hell they want any more, since the Ministry Reforms."

"They tried to recruit my dad for it," Calypso said. "He told them he's not interested in politics."

"They tried to get our parents too," Scorpius said. "Last year. I suppose they thought Dad'd be into it." He glanced sideways at Iseult, who was listening. "It was all pretty tense for a while—I don't think Mum liked them coming round. But Dad didn't want anything to do with it anyway, so they gave up in the end. My grandfather's all for it, of course—him and Dad had a bit of a row, I think."

"I wish my parents were like yours," Danny said gloomily. "Sometimes I wish I wasn't related to them."

"I wouldn't worry," Calypso told him. "I doubt if it'll last long—I mean, what are they actually hoping to do? There's no way they're going to convince the Ministry to listen to them. There's nothing they can do. I expect everyone'll have forgotten about them in a few months."

~~~

Lily Potter sat in a compartment of mixed Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, watching several of her friends play Exploding Snap. The Gryffindors were represented by herself, her best friend, Meri Hewitt, and Rufus Magorian, who was a good friend of her cousin Hugo. The Hufflepuffs were Hugo himself and another of his friends, Ninian Penhallow. Lily had already managed to get excluded from the game, because she hadn't been paying enough attention, as was usually the case.

As she watched, Rufus lost his last pile of cards to Meri, and sat back with a groan. After a moment of continuing to watch the game, he turned to Lily.

"So, you still thinking about trying out for the Quidditch team?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yes, I thought I would. They're missing a Chaser and a Beater this year."

"I never knew you were going to try out, Lil!" Hugo looked up with surprise, missed a matching card, and almost left them long enough to explode in his face. 

Meri got there just in time, and claimed the cards again.

Lily shrugged. "Well, I'm going to try. Though I don't know if Jamie'll want to pick me."

"I don't see why not," Rufus said. "I mean, if you're the best player, it makes sense to choose you. He's a good captain—Gryffindor’s won the cup the last two years, since he's been in charge. So he's not going to not pick you, just because you're his sister, is he?"

Lily laughed. "Well, I might not be the best player. Anyway, what about you, Rufus—are you still trying out?"

"Yep." Rufus grinned at her. "For Beater. So you never know, we might end up on the team together."

"Well, you'd better get ready to be disappointed, even if you do," Ninian—who played Seeker for Hufflepuff—put in, without taking his eyes off the cards. "Hufflepuff's going to wipe the floor with you this year, wait and see."

"Yeah, in your dreams," Rufus retorted.

"Hey, Lily," Hugo interrupted the argument, though he didn't look up from the game this time. "What were Dad and James getting all excited about just before the train left? You all looked like you were having an argument or something."

"Nothing," said Lily, crossly. "We weren't arguing—just James being a prat, as usual. And Uncle Ron overreacting."

"Oh." Hugo looked up briefly. "What was it about?"

"Nothing," Lily said again. "Nothing important, anyway. Completely the opposite, in fact."

"Snap!" Ninian called triumphantly at that moment. "That's you out, Hugo!"

"That wasn't fair!" Hugo protested. "I wasn't watching!"

"Well, whose fault is that?" Ninian answered, and the conversation descended into a good-natured bicker.

Lily stopped paying attention and stared out of the window, thinking about Quidditch, and her brother, and the stupidity of holding onto old grudges.


	2. Cuckoo in the Nest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Iseult Malfoy is sorted and causes a stir, Scorpius uses forbidden magic to contact an unlikely friend, and Louis Weasley tempts fate.

It was raining when the Hogwarts Express arrived at its destination.

Iseult descended from the carriage, pulling her cloak a bit tighter around her. A woman was calling the first-years in a different direction from the others, and Issie cast a nervous look at her brother. Of course, Scorp had only been teasing about battling the Giant Squid, she knew that. But she'd still rather have gone with him.

He smiled reassuringly at her, however, and said he would see her in the Great Hall, so she followed the teacher who was leading them towards the boats.

There were no tasks, only a very wet boat trip across a choppy lake. The girl on one side of Iseult looked a little queasy, but the boy on the other grinned cheerfully at her.

"This is fun, isn't it?" He had to shout over the wind and rain.

Iseult smiled back, a little shyly, and nodded, although she thought that some of the others in the boat might not agree.

"What's your name?" the boy called.

"Iseult Malfoy," she answered loudly, expecting some sort of reaction.

Most people knew the name of Malfoy, even if they didn't like it much. But he showed no sign of recognising it.

"I'm Jake Nelson," he shouted. "Are your mum and dad wizards?"

She nodded, wiping water—spray or rain, she wasn't sure which—out of her eyes.

"Mine aren't." He looked around with shining eyes. "This is crazy! D'you know what'll happen when we get there?"

She hesitated, then told him, "We have to get sorted into Houses."

"What?"

"Houses!" she bellowed back. "We get SORTED!"

Shyness disappeared quickly when they had to shout at each other to be heard. Iseult had never really known any Muggle-borns, but he seemed nice enough. Scorpius said that it was all a load of rubbish, about Purebloods being better in some way, and that some of the greatest witches and wizards in the world were Muggle-born.

He had never said that in front of their father though, so Issie wasn't sure what to think.

It was a bedraggled little group that trooped into the Great Hall behind the sweeping figure of Professor Clearwater, the Deputy Headmistress, who had met them at the front door. The enchanted ceiling was filled with rolling storm clouds and the odd flicker of lightening, as the weather outside worsened. The rest of the hall gradually fell silent as they entered.

"The Sorting will now commence," Professor Clearwater said crisply, and produced a scroll of parchment, apparently from nowhere. She cleared her throat, and called out the first name: "Ashley, Conrad."

A small boy with brown hair and freckles stumbled forwards, looking terrified. He sat down on the chair, and placed the hat gingerly on his head. There was a pause, then the Hat called out, "Ravenclaw!"

The Ravenclaw table cheered, and Conrad, visibly relieved, made his way over, to be greeted with enthusiasm by his new housemates.

'Avery, Lilith' came next, and was sorted into Slytherin. Issie vaguely recognised the girl, and thought she might have seen her at one of Aunt Daphne's parties some time.

And on Professor Clearwater went, up the letters of the alphabet, getting slowly closer to M. The name directly before Iseult's was 'Longbottom, Alice’, a round-faced girl with blonde pigtails, who was pronounced a Gryffindor.

Then her own name was called.

Issie walked up to the chair, sat down in it firmly, squeezed her eyes tight shut, and crammed the hat onto her head. It took only a few moments to make its decision.

 

~~~

You could have heard a pin drop in the Great Hall as Iseult Malfoy carefully removed the Hat from her head, stood up and walked over to the table she had been assigned to. Even Professor Clearwater seemed nonplussed and made no effort to go on with her list, but simply stared with everybody else.

Flushing miserably, Iseult looked at the table, where nobody had made a single move to make a space for her, or shake her by the hand.

Then, from the High Table, a single pair of hands began to clap.

It broke the spell. A scatter of applause broke out, a space was made for Iseult, and Professor Clearwater blinked and continued with the list.

 

  
~~~

Issie found herself sitting next to Jake Nelson again, who had been sorted a few places after her. There had been no silence when the Sorting Hat had announced him a Gryffindor; everyone had clapped and cheered, just as they had for Alice Longbottom, and every other new Gryffindor. It was only Issie who had been different.

She took a roast potato, and pushed it around the plate with her fork. She wasn't really hungry any more.

"When you said we got sorted, I didn't know it would be like that."

She glanced up, startled, as Jake spoke to her, but before she could answer, the girl on the other side of him broke in.

"I didn't even know we were going to be sorted. I'm Muggle-born too." She looked curiously across him at Iseult. "Why did everybody go quiet like that when it was your turn?"  
Iseult looked down at her plate.

"Well…"

How did she explain to two Muggle-borns something she didn’t really understand herself? Of course, her family had always been Slytherins, but it was more than that. People didn't like her family and as far as she could remember, they never had. It was to do with the war, but that was something that didn't get talked about in her home.

Alice Longbottom, sitting on her other side, leaned in to join the conversation.

"Only because all the rest of her family have always been in Slytherin." She smiled sunnily at the others. "My name's Alice. My dad teaches Herbology here, and he's just been made Head of Gryffindor this year."

Iseult realised who she meant: the man at the High Table, who had been the only person to start clapping for her. His face had seemed familiar, and now she knew why—his photograph was on the back cover of one of her new books, _An Introduction to Magical Plants_ , by Professor N. Longbottom.

She also knew that her father didn’t like the Longbottoms, but she could only feel grateful to her new Head of House. She smiled tentatively at Alice.

"I'm Sam Punton," the other Muggle-born said. "Well, it's Samantha, really, but nobody calls me that. I still can't believe that all this is real."

"Me neither," Jake agreed, and they began to talk eagerly about their Muggle lives, and how they had found out about Hogwarts.

Alice squeezed Iseult's arm in a friendly way.

"Don't worry," she whispered. "Everyone was only surprised. I think it's great that you're a Gryffindor, and I bet everyone else will too, once they get used to it."

 

  
~~~

Several of the Gryffindor sixth- and seventh-years gathered together in their common room after the feast. James Potter sat on the back of an armchair, while a fair, blue-eyed boy lounged on the seat of the same chair. On the sofa opposite them, James's brother Albus was reading a book and apparently ignoring the rest, while a slim, dark girl wearing the badge of the Head Girl stood between the two chairs. Three or four others had gathered round them.

"How does a Malfoy end up in Gryffindor?” James demanded to the group at large.

"Ssh. She's only in the dormitory. She'll hear you," Fenella Belby, the Head Girl and one of his closest friends, told him.

"James is right though." The girl speaking was tall and pale, with red-hair, freckles, and a stud through her eyebrow. "I mean, it's never happened before, has it? Malfoys belong in Slytherin, and always have."

"You're worrying about it too much, you two." Another girl, dark-skinned and pretty, with an athletic build and her tightly curled hair pulled back into a bun, joined them in time to catch the last comment. "She's only a first-year. Why does it matter so much?"

She flopped down next to Albus, and he laid down his book to put an arm round her.

"Sapphie's right," he said. "It's not a big deal."

"And of course, you would agree with Sapphie," James muttered.

Both his brother and Sapphie glared at him.

"She's right, though," a blonde, curly-haired seventh-year girl by the name of Annabel Carson, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor by the fire, put in. "Iseult's just another kid. Just because you and her brother can't stand each other, James…"

"Just because Scorpius Malfoy's a little shit, you mean," James corrected her.

"Well, nobody’s arguing with you about that," the blonde boy said. "But I'm with Sapphie too. Iseult Malfoy isn't Scorpius Malfoy. She's in the same house as us now. And the Sorting Hat doesn't make mistakes, so she obviously doesn't belong in Slytherin."

"Louis," Rose Weasley—of the red hair and eye-brow stud—said, "Her father was a Death Eater, in case you've forgotten."

"People aren't their families though," Fenella pointed out. "I mean, I'm the only person in mine not in Ravenclaw. And Rose, your own brother's a Hufflepuff."

"Not exactly the same thing, though, is it?" James said.

"Anyway," Louis broke in before James could get started again, "like Sapphie said, she's a first-year. She's not very likely to bother us, is she?"

 

~~~

Scorpius had excused himself with a mumbled, "Bit tired, think I might just turn in," and gone to the dormitory, ignoring the meaningful glances exchanged by his two friends. He hoped he could rely on them to keep the likes of Searle Nott from coming after him to jeer, or at least to give him warning if he was going to be interrupted.

Gryffindor.

Iseult was in Gryffindor, and after the first shock had worn off, he found that he was not completely surprised. He'd never thought about it, but it kind of made sense now that he did. Issie was the one always charging headlong into things and taking everything at breakneck speed.

He wasn't sure how he felt about it though. Had she had any idea that she might not end up in Slytherin? If she had, wouldn't she have at least hinted at it?

And he couldn't imagine what Dad was going to say about it. Slytherin and Gryffindor did not mix. There was not, perhaps, quite as much open animosity between the two houses as there had been in his father's day, but the rivalry was still strong and bitter. And she was a Malfoy, which made all the difference.

Everyone knew the part the Malfoys had played in the war, and the fact that Harry Potter himself had testified in their favour in the post-war trials did not lessen most people's suspicions of them – including those of Harry Potter's own children. Scorpius knew perfectly well what the Gryffindors thought of him. It didn’t bother him, for the most part, although experience of Potter's hexes had taught him to avoid him if he could. But now.

Now Issie was in the same house as them, and if James Potter decided he was going to take anything out on her, keeping out of trouble would not be the first thing on Scorpius's mind.

He lay down on the top of his bed, still fully clothed except for his shoes, pulled the curtains round himself, and fished a small black rectangle out of his pocket. This was one thing he had managed to keep a secret, even from Calypso and Danny. He was still quite proud of the spells (even though they were probably against about a dozen rules) that had allowed the Muggle device to work within Hogwarts.

It was a reminder that there was another world outside the school, and not very far away either, a world that was as mysterious to most Purebloods as the Wizarding World was to Muggles.

It was his other world, and the little black device was a connection that he thought he might go mad without.

 

~~~

The vibration of her phone was lost in the sound of the mindless action film she was watching, sprawled in front of the television with her mum. Hazel Kitsno saw the screen light up, however, and stretched across to retrieve it from the coffee table.

"From anyone special?" her mother inquired.

Hazel rolled her eyes at her mum's nosiness.

"It's just Scorpius."

"Oh." Her mum fell silent, apparently watching the film. 

Hazel glanced at her, shook her head, and looked at her message. Getting texts from Scorpius at school was a new thing. It only said hello, and asked how she was doing, but there was something about it that made her frown. She’d known Scorpius since that chance meeting at the age of six, and she knew him well enough to know when there was something wrong, even in a text. For one thing, it was his first night back—why was he texting her, when he had seen her only the night before, instead of catching up with the friends he’d been apart from for most of the summer?

However, she only had time to send him a brief one back— **‘Hey you, what’s up?’** —before her mum was talking again.

"Is he back at his school now, then?"

"Mm-hm," Hazel said vaguely. "He went back today."

Hazel wasn't fooled by her mum's casual tones. She knew that Mum was continually puzzled by Scorpius. Unlike some of Hazel's friends at school, she accepted that the two were friends and no more than that, but Hazel knew that her mum often wondered why, after ten years, she didn’t know a bit more about Scorpius Malfoy. 

He'd been to their house, and Mum had met his mum several times when they were younger. But there was no denying that his family was a bit strange. They didn't really have any friends in Mirlton, and they didn't really talk to anyone either. A name like Scorpius was enough to make anyone stand out, and yet, if anything, the Malfoys went out of their way not to attract attention. And he went off to boarding school every term, and was very vague when questioned about it.

Hazel knew exactly why Scorpius's parents kept themselves to themselves, and why he couldn't talk about his school. She’d known for as long as they’d been friends. The world of magic, though, was one she could only hear about second-hand, from the outside. It could never be her world, however much she wished it could be.

With her mum once more distracted by the TV, Hazel scanned Scorpius’s new message. It was short and to the point.

_Issie got put in Gryffindor._

Hazel looked it for a moment, her fingers hesitating over the keyboard. Gryffindor. That was the house that Scorpius’s house had such a rivalry with. Well, this must be unexpected for him. A grin tugged the corners of Hazel’s mouth as she thought of little Issie, with those big, worried-looking eyes that made her appear shy. And she could be a bit shy, but once you got to know her, she had a will of iron, and a lot of independence. Gryffindor was the house of bravery, wasn’t it? Well, Hazel could believe that Iseult could be brave.  
Scorpius had never been into the house rivalry much. He rolled his eyes when he talked about it. But Gryffindor was also the house where a lot of Scorp’s least favourite people were. Including that tosser, James Potter, who’d been giving Scorpius a hard time ever since he started at school. Hazel’s smile faded as she tapped out a reply.

**Wow, is she okay?? :-/**

His answer came in a quick stream of messages.

_Don't know, haven't been able to talk to her. She’s in a different common room. What if they’re being dicks to her? My family’s never been in Gryffindor. They hate us there._

Hazel bit her lip. She knew some of Scorpius’s family history, and he’d tried to explain about the war, and why people thought the things they did about the Malfoys, and where all the hatred came from. It was hard to get her head round it, but she did her best.

**Look she’s just a kid. They probably won’t even take any notice of her. And they can’t all be pricks. Issie’s good at looking after herself. Don’t freak until you’ve talked to her at least. Anyway didn’t you tell me the sorting takes your own choice into account?**

There was a small delay before an answer came back this time.

_Yeah I know. I just expected her to be here, where I could keep an eye on her. There’s nobody she knows in Gryffindor. And none of us talk to any of them—it’s like the rule._

**Yeah, a rule you’ve always said is stupid. You don’t even like the house rivalry thing. Maybe it’s a good thing to shake it up. Trust Issie to do her own thing!!**

Hopefully, she hadn’t gone too far or been too dismissive of his worries—she too hoped that nobody would be mean to Iseult. But she also couldn’t help feeling that he was overreacting a bit. He was the one who’d told her how ridiculous it all was, that the houses were so divided.

However, his next answer showed she'd been at least halfway successful in trying to calm him down.

_That’s true. I shouldn't even be surprised. Don’t get me wrong, I don't care as long as she's happy. Dad might not see it that way though._

Before she had time to reply, another message came through.

_Got to go. Be in touch soon._

Hazel let her phone rest in her lap. It wasn't unusual for Scorpius to have to disappear suddenly, and it generally meant that someone else had come into the room and he'd had to hide the phone in a hurry.

"How's he doing?" her mum asked.

"Fine, I think." Hazel said. 

It wasn’t quite true, but there was no point talking to Mum about houses—that would only lead to awkward questions.

"All ready for school on Monday?" Her mum changed the subject, and Hazel followed her lead with relief.

"Yeah, more or less. There's not much to get ready, and I'll sort my clothes on Sunday night."

For all she'd spent her childhood longing for Hogwarts and magic wands and broomsticks, there was something to be said for the Sixth Form at Mirlton Secondary School. At least they didn't have rival houses, with death feuds resulting from bloody wars. Neither did she have to live with all her schoolmates. 

All in all, she was quite glad of the prospect of a peaceful year.

~~~

Iseult woke next morning, and lay for a moment, looking at the unfamiliar curtains around her bed. Red and gold. Gryffindor. She was in Gryffindor.

What was her family going to say? 

She’d looked forward so much to coming to Hogwarts with Scorpius, but she hadn’t even had a chance to talk to him the night before. How had it happened? It hadn’t occurred to her to think about what house she might be in until the Hat was on her head. She’d never considered that she might not end up in Slytherin. 

But she had let it put her in Gryffindor. She had even, for a few moments, been excited. Before she realised that, of course, nobody wanted a Malfoy in Gryffindor. 

She had lain awake for what seemed like hours the night before, wishing it hadn’t happened, that she was in the Slytherin dormitories, with Scorpius just a few rooms away. She must try to talk to him today. Unless he was angry with her for being in Gryffindor. But he wouldn’t be, would he? Scorpius always understood. Mum usually did too. But what about Dad?

Iseult sat up, and pulled her curtain to one side. The rain had blown away in the night, and the day was warm and sunny. Tosca was sitting on the windowsill, swishing her tail at the crows that flew past outside, and Issie felt a tiny bit better. At least Tosca was here with her. 

Alice Longbottom was standing beside the kitten.

"You can't go out there, puss." Alice stroked Tosca's head. "You'd only fall. I don't think even you'd manage to land on your feet after falling for seven floors." She turned round and smiled at Issie. "I've got an owl, but he's in the owlery. My mum and dad got him for me when I got my Hogwarts letter."

"I haven't got anything," Sam said, longingly, from the bed on the other side of the window. "Mum said she had enough to get used to, with me being a witch, without filling the house with animals. I'd like a cat though. Or an owl. Are the owls tame?"

"Of course." Alice sounded surprised. "My Milton's dead friendly. You can share him if you want?" She looked expectantly at Issie, who hastened to agree.  
"And you can share Tosca too."

Sam beamed. "Really?"

"Course," Alice said. "You can use Milton to send letters any time you like. I won't need him that often—my dad’s right here at Hogwarts, and he’s got his own owl for writing to Mum."

"Um." Sam sounded doubtful. "I'm not sure if Mum would really like getting letters by an owl."

Alice stared at her. "Well, how else are you going to write to her?" She looked at the fourth girl in their dormitory, who had been silent. "Have you got an animal?"

The other girl, Antigone Felling, nodded.

"Yes, I've got an owl as well. Her name's Star."

"That's pretty," said Alice, politely. "What kind is she?"

"A barn owl."

"Oh, my dad's is a barn owl," chattered Alice. "Milton's a Little Owl. That's Dad's idea of a joke. It's what he calls me, you see. Little Owl. Because I wear glasses for reading, and he says they make me look like a little owl."

"My brother's got a Long-Eared Owl," Iseult contributed. 

There was the breath of a pause.

"Is your brother at Hogwarts?" Sam asked, innocently.

Iseult nodded. "Yes, he's in sixth year. But he's in Slytherin."

Sam looked curiously at her. "Oh, yes," she said. "Alice said all your family was in Slytherin. How come you're in Gryffindor, then?"

Iseult hesitated and, once more, Alice came to her rescue.

"Well, not everybody gets put in the same house as their family. My mum was in Hufflepuff, and my big brother's in Ravenclaw."

"Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff aren't the same as Slytherin, though," Antigone put in. 

There was an awkward pause.

"There are lots of nice people in Slytherin," Issie said, at last. She didn’t want to argue with her new dorm-mates, but she couldn’t betray her own family. "Scorpius is nice, and so are his friends."

Antigone looked as though she didn't quite believe her, but nobody said any more.

To Issie's immense disappointment, Scorpius was not at breakfast. From her place at the Gryffindor table, she searched the Slytherin benches for him, craning her neck to see across the hall, but he definitely wasn't there.

"What are you doing?" Jake Nelson had come to sit beside her again.

"I was looking for my brother," Issie said. 

She spoke quietly, but not quietly enough. An older girl sitting opposite her, with brown skin and hair, who looked about fourteen or fifteen, turned, and smiled kindly.

"You won't find him. All the prefects had to go to breakfast together."

"They always do that,” the older girl’s friend put in.

The second girl was very pretty, with long red hair flowing loose over her shoulders, and Issie realised, with a small shock, that it was Lily Potter. Talking to _her_.

"I think they have to have a briefing or something like that,” Lily went on. “Al went as well. What have we got first, Meri?" she asked the first girl. 

They turned to look at their timetables, taking no more notice of Issie.

Issie was somewhat quiet for the rest of breakfast, although Jake and Alice both did their best to include her. They were hurried off to their first lesson after the meal, and Issie found herself sitting next to Alice. 

She felt a small pang of guilt for liking her so much. It seemed almost like treachery, when she knew what her dad felt about Alice’s dad. But Alice apparently had no such qualms and really, it would have been impossible not to like her, she was so friendly.

Charms was fun; Professor Patil had decided to give them a practical session to start them off and Iseult was one of the very few people who managed to move her feather. Transfiguration, her other lesson that morning, was duller, as they did no actual magic at all. After lunch—during which she, once again, failed to find Scorpius—they trooped down to the greenhouses, for Herbology with Alice's dad.

She liked Professor Longbottom too, Iseult decided, whatever her father thought of him. He wasn't Dad's sort of person, that must be all. He was much too easygoing and light-hearted, but that didn't mean that he wasn't nice. Anyway, he had been the only person to clap when she had been placed in Gryffindor, and, whatever he thought of her family, he treated her no differently from any other student. He didn't really treat Alice any differently either, although she grinned cheekily at him, and introduced Iseult to him when he came over to see how they were getting on half way through the lesson. He smiled at them.

"Well, I hope you're settling in all right, Iseult. Don't let this young woman talk you to death! We're very pleased to have you in Gryffindor, by the way." 

Whether he meant it or not, he managed to sound as though he did, and she was grateful.

The last lesson of the day was Potions, which happened to be in the dungeons, and which they also happened to have with the Slytherins. The Gryffindor students had to come up from the greenhouses, and the Slytherins were already in the classroom when they arrived. 

As Iseult entered, every one of them, as if it had been pre-arranged, turned and stared fixedly at her. Feeling like a traitor, her cheeks burned and her stomach sank; all the cheerfulness she had felt in Herbology faded away. Alice squeezed her arm.

"Ignore them," she whispered, loudly.

"Ugly lot, aren't they?" Jake didn’t even bother to lower his voice. "Aren't you glad you're not with them, Iseult?"

Sam giggled, and Iseult’s face turned even hotter, but she felt cheered. At least some people wanted her in Gryffindor.

All the same, it was not a fun lesson. Several of the Slytherins kept sending nasty looks her way, and at one point, a girl with long dark curls, and a nose that tilted up at the end slightly, threw a small crumpled piece of paper onto the desk in front of her. On it were written the words 'BLOOD TRATER.' 

Alice looked at it, and went pink with indignation.

"That's disgusting!" she hissed. "They'd be in so much trouble if we showed it to Professor Mundy. All that stuff about blood, that's what You-Know-Who came out with!"

Jake leaned over from his own seat and read it. His reaction was not as strong as Alice's; as a Muggle-born, he probably didn’t really know what it meant. Instead, he looked over at the girl who had sent it.

"Who is she?" he whispered. "D'you know her?"

Issie shrugged. "Sort of. Her name's Eris Montague. My mum and dad know hers." She was trying very hard not to let it bother her. Confidence, that was what Dad had said. Who cared what Eris Montague thought? 

Jake looked over at Eris again, who was smirking in their direction, and said, perfectly audibly to anyone except Professor Mundy, who was elderly and somewhat deaf, and was sitting at his desk at the front of the classroom, "Ugly and thick! They can't spell traitor." 

He picked up the piece of paper, screwed it into a ball, and threw it at the girl.

His aim was good; unfortunately, Professor Mundy happened to look up at that moment, and while his ears weren't too good, there was nothing wrong with his eyesight. Jake was informed that if it had not been the first day, he would have lost five points from Gryffindor (some of the Slytherins looked very disappointed that this wasn’t to be the case). Jake didn't seem fazed, but as Professor Mundy turned away, Antigone leaned over to him from her seat beside Sam.

"You want to watch out for the Montagues," she told him in a whisper. "She's got a sister in fourth year, and a brother in third, and they all stick together. All those Death Eater families stick together." She gave Iseult a suspicious look, which clearly said that the Malfoys really ought to be included in 'those Death Eater families.'

"Well, if they're all like her, you're much better off with us," Jake told Iseult, firmly, and proceeded to spend the rest of the lesson sucking tiny pellets of paper and pelting Eris Montague with them, whenever Professor Mundy wasn't watching.

Iseult was glad when the lesson ended, though, and they were free to go. This wasn't going to be easy; many of the Gryffindors didn’t want her, and the Slytherins considered her a traitor.

In the common room, she made up her mind that she could not wait until she had spoken to Scorpius before telling her parents. They had to know anyway, and who knew when she'd get a chance to talk to Scorp by himself? If they were in the same house, it would be easy, she thought, forlornly. 

She pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill, and began to write.


	3. Unforgivable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cruel attack creates reverberations in both the Magical and Muggle worlds.

Hermione Granger-Weasley looked anxiously at her watch as she finished setting the table for dinner.

"He ought to be here by now. I hope there haven't been any complications."

"Well, it was a nasty case," Harry replied. "I'd have gone with him if I hadn't been snowed under with ridiculous meetings. Not that Ron can't cope. But still—we haven't had anything like this for years."

"What had happened exactly?" Ginny asked.

"Reported case of the Imperius Curse on a Muggle school child," Harry said, grimly. "Lots of Muggle witnesses to deal with—and of course, the poor kid must be traumatised. Dennis Creevey was with him, though, so that’s two Senior Aurors; they should have managed. They've got teams from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad and the Muggle Liaison Office with them too, to deal with damage control and memory modifications. I only hope they can get some idea of who's behind it."

Ginny shivered. "How awful. You don't really expect that sort of thing these days, do you? Poor kid."

"There's been a bit of a spate of Muggle-baiting incidents recently," Hermione commented. "Not as serious as this one, of course. Just little things that could be dismissed as malicious pranks. But it's a bit of a worrying pattern."

There was a short pause as all three of them wondered what Ron had found in his investigation.

"Have you heard from Rose or Hugo yet?" Ginny changed the subject in the end.

Hermione shook her head.

"No. It's only two weeks into term, and they've never been the greatest letter writers, those two. What about you?"

"Not yet." Ginny laughed. "Although Lily usually writes fairly quickly. I think the boys think it's beyond their dignity to write to Mum and Dad now they're sixth and seventh-years."  
Hermione shook her head again, this time in rueful amusement.

"Can you believe it? James in his seventh year, and Albus and Rose in their sixth. Seems just yesterday that we were their age."

They were all silent again, remembering where they had been in their sixth and seventh years. None of them needed to say anything; they all knew that the others were also feeling unbelievably relieved that their own children did not have to go through that.

"How's James feeling about NEWTs?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, you know Jamie." Harry shook himself out of his reverie. "He never lets silly things like actual work get to him. He could get top marks in most things if he tried. As it is, he doesn't, but he'll do all right. At least, I hope so."

At that moment, the front door opened, and Ron entered, looking tired and dishevelled, as though he had run his hands through his hair several times recently.

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. "What happened? What have you been doing all this time? Is everything all right?"

"One question at a time, Hermione." Ron said. "Can I sit down before I start answering them? And is there anything for dinner or have you three hogged it all already?"

"We haven't started yet," Hermione told him. "We were waiting for you. But it's all ready, keeping warm in the oven. I'll get it, and then you can tell us all about it while we're eating."

"Blimey, Harry," said Ron, as Hermione levitated the dishes to the table. "Talk about a complicated case. What have I done to you recently, to deserve that?"

"What happened?" asked Ginny.

Ron gave her a warning look. "Not a word to your friends at the _Prophet!_ "

"Have I ever given away something to do with your work?" Ginny said, indignantly. "I'm _Sports_ Editor, Ron; I don't publish articles about abuse of Muggles."

Ron dug into the chicken, and put a large forkful into his mouth.

"Mmm," he said, indistinctly. "'S shuvly, 'Mynee."

"Thank you," said Hermione dryly, interpreting the compliment to her cooking. "Wine, Harry? Ginny?"

They accepted, and Hermione poured out.

"Cheers, everybody." Harry raised his glass. 

When the others had done the same, and the meal was under way, they all looked expectantly at Ron, who swallowed a forkful of green beans and began.

"Well, obviously, I'll write a proper report for you first thing tomorrow, Harry, but you may as well hear it informally now. Complete chaos when we got there. They hadn't done any memory modifications before we arrived, because they thought we'd want to question people. Of course, the Muggles had called the police; luckily one of our lot managed to get wind of it and do some damage control. But a lot of Muggles had seen things, and of course quite a few of them had told their friends," Ron took another mouthful, and went on when he had finished. "There are still a bunch of our people out there, tracking down anybody who knows anything and modifying memories. Poor bastards, I don't envy them that job."

"But what had happened?" demanded Hermione. " _Had_ the child been under the Imperious Curse?"

"Oh yes," said Ron. "She was still under it when we arrived, although whoever cast it seemed to have given up exercising any power over her. The kid was just sitting there, in a trance; you could hardly get through to her. She'd been wreaking havoc before, though. Tried to attack a group of other students with a broken bottle. She's only thirteen."

His listeners looked sickened.

"But who…" said Hermione, and trailed off.

Ron shrugged. "Too early to tell. Obviously, we're working on it. It had been strongly cast; this wasn't the work of an amateur. Lucky for the kid, really. She's being checked over in St Mungo's, but she shouldn't have any lasting effects, the way she might have if the spell had been bungled. It was one of the Muggle teachers at the school who called the police. The kid would probably be in a Muggle mental hospital by now if a witch hadn't happened to be in the vicinity, recognised the symptoms of the Imperius, and contacted us. We interviewed her of course, along with about a dozen Muggle witnesses."

"Who was it?" Ginny asked. "Anybody we know?"

"Well, here's the thing." Ron sounded slightly amused. "It was Astoria Malfoy. Who, by the looks of her, is about seven or eight months pregnant."

"No!" Ginny exclaimed. "No wonder she wasn't at Kings Cross!"

Ron nodded. "Yep. So there must still be the odd spark of passion between her and Malfoy. Unless it isn't his, of course, which would explain why they haven't told anybody."

"Honestly, Ron!" said Hermione. "You're as bad as Rita Skeeter. I expect they only want a bit of privacy. I mean, you don't really expect another baby, do you, when you're both into your forties and your other children are growing up?"

"She did ask me not to mention it to anyone," Ron admitted.

"So you came home and told your wife, your sister and your best friend. How professional."

"Well, I know you won't spread it any further," said Ron, calmly. "It isn't as though I've told Dominique. Although, now I think about it, that isn't a bad idea. What’s the use of having a niece who writes a gossip column, if you can't leak little bits of news?"

Hermione merely raised her eyebrows at him, and he chuckled.

"All right, all right. You know I'm not serious. Although people are going to know pretty soon, unless they plan on keeping the baby locked away from sight. But anyway, the Malfoys are one line of investigation we're following. Bit suspicious; it happened just a few streets away from where they live. And it isn't as though there are a lot of witches and wizards in that area."

"But if the Malfoys were responsible, why would Astoria call you in?" Ginny asked.

"Could be a blind," Ron said. "It doesn't look as if whoever it was wanted to hide it. It was very much a public statement. Served no purpose whatsoever except to victimise Muggles and cause trouble for the Ministry. They wanted us to find out, I'm sure of that."

He looked at Harry, who had been silent.

"Could be," Harry agreed. "Although I'm having a hard time believing that Astoria Malfoy, heavily pregnant, and with no known history of Dark Art activity, was responsible for this mindless piece of nastiness. Even Malfoy himself—to all appearances, he's completely renounced the Dark Arts. What on earth would he want to do this for? It's more than just troublemaking. You said the girl tried to stab other Muggles. People could have been hurt—or worse."

"Hm." Ron nodded. "But you have to admit, it's a coincidence, happening in the very same town."

"Yes," said Harry, slowly. "It is a coincidence. As you say, it isn't a wizarding community. But it may be just that: a coincidence. We mustn't let our prejudices against Draco Malfoy make us jump to conclusions."

Ron nodded in agreement.

"You don't think somebody could have done it deliberately, do you?" asked Hermione, frowning. "I mean, the Malfoys aren't exactly popular in any circle, are they?"

"You mean somebody could have tried to frame them?" Harry asked. "It's possible." He looked at Ron. "Well, you're in charge of this one, Ron. Wish I could help, to be honest. Life used to be more interesting when I wasn't head of the office. It's all meetings and forms and bloody bureaucracy these days."

~~~

It was raining on the day of the first Gryffindor Quidditch practise. 

Trials had happened the previous week, and some people had been slightly surprised at the two new choices for the team. Nobody who had not seen Lily fly would have had her down as a Quidditch player; she was the pretty, feminine, dreamy one of her family, who would forget her head if it wasn't screwed on, and there had been a few nasty whispers of favouritism, although the other members of the team had dismissed these scornfully. 

As Sapphie Jordan—who played Keeper—had remarked, whatever else you could say about James Potter, he would never jeopardise the success of the Quidditch team by picking players for anything other than skill.

Rufus Magorian had also made the team, as the second Beater, but there was no surprise there. Rufus was short, stocky and powerful, with a swing that was second-to-none, and had only narrowly missed out on the team the previous year, losing out to the greater experience of Sebastian Graves, two years his senior.

James himself had been slightly surprised at his sister's display of skill. He had known that she could play, of course, but she had never shown any interest in trying out for the team before. He knew that people would think it was favouritism, but that couldn't be helped; she really had been by far the best, except for Angharad Jones. Jones, the youngest daughter of the legendary Gwenog, had tried out for Chaser each year there had been a vacancy, but as James kept telling her, with exasperation, they needed her as Seeker. She was really a far better Chaser, but they had nobody else who was any good at all as Seeker. It was the one weak point of the team, and it annoyed James no end.

This was James's third year as Captain. The first year, they had won the cup, despite James himself spending one of the matches in St Mungo's, after an incident involving exploding chewing gum that had been Louis’s fault entirely. Last year, too, had been his, but they had only just scraped it, after an embarrassing loss to Slytherin. This year, James was determined not to repeat the same mistakes. The trouble was, Scorpius Malfoy, much as James hated to admit it, was a better Seeker than Angharad, and he owned a very fast broom. And Xanthe Derrick was back to full health after her nasty attack of Dragon Pox last year, more lethal than ever, and, rumour had it, made quite a team with the two new Slytherin Chasers, Nott and Dimitar.

But James's father had won the cup when he had been Captain, and so had his mother and, according to the stories, his grandfather and namesake. He was not going to be the first Potter to lose it (of course, technically, his mother had not been a Potter when she had won the cup, but that was an irrelevant detail). Quidditch was the one thing that James knew for sure that he could do as well as, if not better than, his father. Not that he really cared about seeming as good as his father – he was his own person he told himself firmly, and it didn't matter that as a seventh year, his patronus could only just be called corporeal – but still, Quidditch was important.

So he had drawn up a gruelling practise schedule, and was being very firm about the whole team turning up to them all. With two new team members, they had to be up to scratch in time for their first match. And if that meant practising through the grimmest late September weather that the Scottish Highlands could throw at them, he thought, looking out of the window one Saturday morning, then so be it. He marched his team out on to the pitch, and made sure that they were all listening as he began to tell them his newest ideas about tactics.

Lily stood resignedly on the sodden grass, her wet robes clinging uncomfortably, and her hair plastered to her face, not listening to a word of her brother's lecture. Trust James to plan a Quidditch practise in the rain. And trust James to look entirely cheerful about the whole thing, as though he had not noticed the water pouring down on him. 

Seb Graves edged up next to her.

"Don't worry," he muttered, with a grin, as James finished talking and they mounted their brooms. "I'll try not to hit the bludger at you."

She looked at him in surprise. "Why? That's the whole point, isn't it?"

He smiled at her, an expression on his face she did not quite know what to make of. "I'd hate it if I hurt you."

Doubtfully, she smiled back at him. "You don't need to worry. I'll be fine. But thanks."

James had stopped speaking, and was looking their way with a scowl on his face. Seb, seeming to become aware of this, hurriedly swung a leg over his broom, and flew off into position, leaving Lily looking after him, puzzled.

"Lily!" James' voice brought her back down to earth. "Come on!"

Nobody could have said that the practise was a great success. The visibility was awful, and everybody was wet and cold. Lily was having trouble staying on her broom because the handle was so slippery. Seb might have promised not to hit bludgers at her, but Rufus had no such qualms, and hit them with a force she thought quite unnecessary. 

Eventually Sapphie yelled, "Hoi, James! This is stupid! We can't play like this!"

James, apparently, was uncomfortable enough himself to agree, and they flew down, the mood vaguely depressed. Angharad Jones, who had not had much to do, as Seeker (catching sight of the Snitch in that weather would have been virtually impossible), was found to be so cold that she had turned blue and had trouble getting off her broom.

Sapphie glared at James. "Look what you've done!"

"Merlin, Ang!" James looked worried. "Come on, we'll get you back to the common room, and get you a hot drink." He put his arm round her shoulder, took her broom off her, and ushered her away.

"James Potter, Prince of Chivalry!" Sapphie muttered, as the rest of the team trailed after them, wet and muddy. 

Lily giggled, but the other Chaser, Emilia Brooke, looked reproachful.

"He's only being nice."

Sapphie rolled her eyes. "And you only fancy the pants off him, Em."

"I do not!" Emilia turned pink.

"You do!" retorted Sapphie. "Come on, Emmy, we all know you and James…" Sapphie broke off suddenly, looking at Lily.

Lily looked back at her, expectantly, finding the conversation somewhat interesting. She knew more or less what her oldest brother was like, but not the details, as people mostly seemed to think she was too young to hear about it. As if she was about twelve, not coming up for fifteen. Perhaps being on the Quidditch team would mean access to a bit more gossip.

"Well, so have you!" Emmy retorted, not seeming to notice the way Sapphie had stopped.

Sapphie went red, and she pulled a face at Emilia, jerking her head at Lily. 

"What?" Lily demanded, when neither of the two sixth-years went on. "You and James have… what? Kissed? I never knew that, Sapph!"

Sapphie laughed, though it sounded a bit forced.

"Once. And it'll never happen again, I promise you that."

~~~

Afterwards, when Lily had disappeared, Sapphie looked angrily at Emilia.

"For Merlin's sake, Em! What's the matter with you, saying that in front of Lily?"

"You started it!" Emilia protested, with perfect truth.

"I have a boyfriend!" Sapphie hissed. "And I'd really rather he didn't find out that I ever slept with his brother!"

~~~

Hazel left the English classroom, and headed across the bridge towards the sixth form common room. Mr Carpenter had kept them after the bell, and the others would probably already be waiting for her, so that they could go into town for lunch. That was one of the perks of being a sixth former—that, free lessons, and not having to wear uniform.

A small group of younger girls caught her eye as she passed them, and she glanced at them, opening her mouth to say hello, because one of them was Charlotte Davis, younger sister of Hazel’s friend, Anna. Then she stopped. Something was wrong. To her dismay, Charlotte was crying, and the others were gathered around her, their faces ranging from confused to downright scared.

Hazel had known Charlotte for years, and she paused, surprise turning to concern. Maybe she shouldn’t interfere. It might be something private. On the other hand, if she could help, she wanted to.

"Hey, Charlotte," she said hesitantly. 

What could the matter be? It couldn’t be a family thing—Hazel had seen Anna that morning, and she’d been completely normal. 

The girls looked round, and Charlotte made an obvious effort to choke back the tears.

"Oh... hey, Hazel." Charlotte tried to mop her eyes without smudging the mascara she was wearing, a fairly pointless task, as it was already in black rivulets down her cheeks.

"What's the matter?" Hazel asked. "What's happened, Char? I mean, don’t tell me if it’s something private, but…"

Charlotte bit her lip and looked at the others. They were looking wary, but also a little hopeful. As if they wanted to talk about whatever it was. 

"You know Fiona Murphy?" a small, skinny girl Hazel knew by sight asked.

Hazel nodded. "Yeah, why?"

Fiona was Charlotte's best friend. She was a quiet girl, who was often round at the Davis family's house when Hazel went to see Anna. You didn't normally see either of the two without the other at school, except when their timetables forced them apart. Hazel didn’t know her well, but she’d got the impression of a nice, slightly shy, quite studious girl.  
The younger girls glanced at each other again.

"She's been off school the last few days," one of them said slowly.

"Oh, yeah." 

Hazel suddenly recalled hearing a rumour—spread by some stupid little Year Eight boy who no doubt thought it was funny—that Fiona had gone crazy on her way to school, and tried to stab someone, and was currently strait-jacketed in a mental hospital (except that the spreader of the rumours had called it a 'loony bin'). 

The true story, which Fiona's friends had been quick to broadcast in response to this, seemed to be that Fiona had fainted in the street, which was dramatic enough, but probably not too much to worry about. Or maybe it was. Maybe there really was something seriously wrong with Fiona Murphy.

"Is she okay?" Hazel asked.

The girl who was her informant shrugged.

"We don't know. She hasn’t been online. We even tried to call her, but her mum answered and wouldn't let us talk to her. She said Fee wasn't well, and wouldn't be at school for a few days, but that she's going to be fine."

Hazel frowned. That was odd, and did suggest that Fiona might be really ill. God, that would be awful. But why all the secrecy?

"So, you’re worried about her?" she said, gently.

"Well, obviously. But that isn't everything." Charlotte had got control of herself, although her voice was still wobbly. "You know those stupid rumours Jason Robertson was spreading?”

"Well, yeah, but no-one believed them; not really..." Hazel began.

Charlotte interrupted her. "Hazel, I don't know what to do. If we tell you, will you swear not to tell anyone?"

Hazel looked seriously at her. "That depends what you're going to tell me, Char. If it's something really serious, I might have to."

Charlotte swallowed, and wiped some more mascara across her cheek.

"I only found it this morning. And I just completely freaked when I saw it! I don't get it... and I'm scared, Haze."

She held out her phone, and Hazel stared at it.

"What about it?"

"Look at the video!" Charlotte insisted.

Hazel took the phone, and pressed play.

It was an ordinary, bad little iPhone video. It started with a moment of blurred confusion. Then Fiona Murphy appeared in it. She seemed to be dancing, then she leaned into the camera, her face distorted.

"I thought she was just, like, messing about," Charlotte said, her voice wobbling again. "I wouldn't have filmed her if I'd..."

She trailed off. In the video, Fiona was now standing on a park bench, swinging her school bag round her head and shrieking. There was the sound of laughter from behind the camera, slowly turning to confusion and dismay. Hazel stared at it. That wasn't the usual way Fiona acted; not at all. And... Jesus, what the hell was she doing? She was taking her skirt off! Hazel glanced up at the Year Nine girls in shock. They were all watching her.

"What the hell?" she began.

"Keep watching," said Charlotte.

Hazel's eyes returned reluctantly to the screen. Charlotte seemed to have stopped concentrating on her video, but forgotten to stop filming. As a result, things were confused; the picture was unfocused and kept going black as somebody blocked it. But their voices were clear, as they tried to control their friend in an increasingly hysterical argument.   
A boy's voice—the famous Jason, maybe—joined them, saying _"What's she doing? Is she pissed?"_ in tones of awe, and Hazel could hear other voices in the background. Fiona had obviously been attracting an audience.

Then there was the sound of breaking glass, and somebody screamed. Charlotte's voice shouted Fiona's name, and there was a rising noise, in which an adult's voice could finally be heard. And then, just for a moment, the picture came clear again.

Fiona Murphy was standing in the road in her blouse, blazer and knickers, clutching in her hand the neck of a beer bottle that she must have picked up off the ground. She had clearly just smashed the end of it off, and was whirling round to threaten her watchers with a lethal, jagged broken edge, while they backed away in a hurry, panic spreading.  
Then the video went black, although not before Hazel had seen, with yet another shock, a familiar figure in the background.

For a moment after the video had finished, there was a silence, then she looked up and met Charlotte Davis's eyes, miserable and frightened.

"Fucking hell," Hazel said flatly. "You mean it's true after all?"

Charlotte bit her lip. "No. I mean... yeah, I suppose so. But the thing is, Hazel." Her voice shook. "I don't remember it. None of us do. We remember walking to school, all of us together." She looked around for support, and the other girls nodded in agreement. "And Fee was there. And we were just talking, and then Fee suddenly started to look really weird, and then she just fell on the ground. Like, fainted, you know? And we were freaking out, but some people stopped and helped us, and someone called an ambulance, and they took her away. It was really scary, but..." she took the phone back from Hazel, "none of _that_ happened."

Hazel stared incredulously at her. "But I've just seen it."

"I know," Charlotte said. "So have I!"

Hazel blinked. "And none of you remember any of it?"

The girls all shook their heads.

"Nobody remembers it," the skinny girl offered. "Except Jason Robertson. There were loads of people who saw it, and they all remember exactly the same stuff as us. They've been helping us tell everyone that Jason's talking crap. Only he isn't talking crap!"

Hazel's brain was racing, and she bit her lip. Think. She needed to think.

To most people, this would be an almost laughable occurrence. An impossible one. But Hazel knew that there were things in the world that most people knew nothing about. Possibilities most people would never think of. 

She was pretty sure that there was no such thing as natural mass amnesia. But there were such things as Memory Charms; Scorpius had told her about them. And there were also things that would make a thirteen-year-old girl behave very strangely. Hazel did not pretend to understand most of them. But something very bizarre was going on.  
"What should we do?" Charlotte asked, and her voice sounded suddenly very young.

Hazel hesitated. "Look, I'm sure there's a rational explanation," she said, knowing it didn't sound very believable. But then, what she had seen wasn't very believable either. "People can do some funny things when they're not well. Her mum said she’d only be off for a few days, right? Well, if she had flu or something, and she was really feverish, she might not have known what she was doing. Or even if it was something else, some sort of, I don’t know, sudden attack, at least she's where she needs to be, right? In the hospital. If her mum says she's going to be fine, I'm sure that's true."

"But why wouldn't we remember it?" Charlotte asked.

"Well, you can block out things that really scare you." Hazel tried desperately to sound logical and reasonable, not as though she was making it up as she went along. "Repressed memories, they call them. You've blocked it out. Which must feel weird, but it's the only explanation isn't it?"

They looked at each other. She wasn't sure if they believed her, but there was hope in their eyes. They _wanted_ to believe her.

"Look," she said. "If I were you, I'd keep quiet about it. As it is, everyone believes you, not Jason Robertson. You don't want everyone to start talking crap about Fiona. Whatever's the matter with her, I really doubt she'd want everyone knowing about it, and making up stories."

They were nodding; that was something they could understand. Hazel put a hand on Charlotte's arm, feeling bad for the lies. Because they were lies - Hazel didn't believe a word that she was saying.

"You'd better go to the toilets and get yourself cleaned up. And go and have some lunch. Get a tea from the machine or something. You'll probably feel better then."

She watched them walk away. It probably wouldn't last long. They weren't stupid, and they weren't babies. They'd think about what she'd said and realise the flaws in it. They'd have questions, and she didn't have the answers. All she'd done was buy some time to investigate for herself.

And the first thing she was going to do was text Scorpius. She was convinced that there was magic behind this, and anyway, there was a mystery he could perhaps clear up. Of course, it might only be a coincidence, but Hazel wondered. She had recognised the figure in the long skirt and coat in the background of the picture, and she had to tell Scorpius about it.

It had been Astoria Malfoy.


	4. Reading the Daily Prophet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Various people react to the news of the Muggle attack, and Lily Potter gets a date.

"Seen the news?" Meredith Hewitt asked as Lily slipped into the seat beside her at the breakfast table.

Lily stared at her friend. "No, why?"

Meri pushed the _Daily Prophet_ in front of her. A harassed picture of Lily's Uncle Ron was trying to avoid the photographers.

 _"MUGGLE TERROR RETURNS!"_ screamed the headline. _"Information leaked from the Ministry!"_

Lily scanned down the page.

 _"For the first time for almost a decade,"_ the paper claimed, _"a Muggle has been targeted with an Unforgivable Curse…"_ Lily let her eyes skim over the article, taking in phrases here and there.

_"Muggle school-girl… No other details… Unconfirmed by the Ministry… Ronald Weasley, the Auror reputed to be in charge of the case, refused to comment… Location unknown, but rumours are that the incident occurred a short distance from the home of ex-Death Eater, Draco Malfoy… Possibility of the involvement of the Malfoys… Harry Potter, Head of the Auror Office, said only that an incident was being investigated but that there was no serious damage and no security breach…"_

The article went on to talk about how the Auror Office and the rest of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, had improved crime rates recently, and how this was the first such incident since Lily's father had taken over the Office.

"Wow!" She glanced down the table to where Iseult Malfoy was chattering happily to Alice Longbottom. "That's horrible. And typical of the _Daily Prophet_ to pin it on the nearest ex-Death Eater."

"Your mum works for them," Meri pointed out.

"For the sports section. She doesn't write articles like this. Poor Uncle Ron," Lily went on, sympathetically. "He looks a bit stressed."

"I take it you didn't know anything about it?" Meri said.

Lily shook her head. "Not a word. Did you hear anything from your mum?”

Meri’s mum was also a Senior Auror, but she shook her head. 

“No, definitely not. I mean, it only happened yesterday, but Mum doesn’t exactly tell me about her cases anyway.”

Lily’s eyes returned to the article and fell on a section about the Malfoys. It rehashed all the old history, as the _Prophet_ liked to do, every time any famous wartime name hit the headlines.

 _"The name of Draco Malfoy,"_ it said, _"is, of course, well known. Despite being a prominent and respected family before the war, the Malfoys showed their true colours when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named returned to power in 1996. Mr Lucius Malfoy, father of Draco, fought in the Battle at the Ministry, when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was first confirmed as having returned, and was subsequently imprisoned in Azkaban. Draco Malfoy himself, then aged just sixteen, is known to have been the youngest of the Death Eaters at the time of the War. Both father and son fought in the Battle of Hogwarts._

_“Following the war, Lucius Malfoy and his wife, Narcissa, née Black, publicly donated a large sum towards the rebuilding of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, and another undisclosed sum to the Muggleborn Association, then newly established._

_"Although Harry Potter himself is said to have given evidence leading to their final acquittal, there are many in the wizarding world who believe that a leopard never truly changes its spots, and that the Malfoys' behaviour at the end of the War, when they apparently reneged on their master, was determined by self-interest, not by regret for their past actions._

_"Even convicted Death Eaters have spoken out against them. One such figure, recently released from Azkaban and wishing to remain anonymous, told this paper that the Malfoys_ 'always manage to wriggle out of trouble and leave others to take the blame.' __

_“Although there is no confirmation that this latest incident was in fact in Mirlton, the northern town where Draco Malfoy has made his home, rumours abound, and it is said that Astoria Malfoy, née Greengrass, is helping the Ministry with their inquiries. Mrs Malfoy has not been seen in public for some weeks, and suspicion is bound to fall upon her and her husband."_

Lily shook her head. "I feel sorry for them. Whatever they do, it'll always be wrong."

"Who?" Meri asked in surprise. "The Auror Department? Or the Muggles?"

"No, the Malfoys," Lily said.

"Oh. Yeah, I s'pose," Meri agreed. "It isn't really fair, is it?"

"Hey Lily!" They were interrupted by a sixth-year boy, Zeke Lucas, who slid into a seat opposite them. “Hey, Mer.” 

"Hey, Zeke." 

Although she said hello, Lily hardly raised her eyes from the paper. Zeke was more a friend of Meri’s than of hers; he was a couple of years older than them, so they didn’t hang around together much, but Zeke’s dad was friends with Meri’s—at least, Lily thought that was the connection—and they’d grown up knowing each other, like Lily and the Longbottoms. For their first few years at Hogwarts, Zeke hadn’t taken much notice of Meri, but recently he’d started to come and talk to her more again.

"Um, Lily?"

"Hmm?" She looked up, vaguely surprised. What was the matter with him? He looked almost nervous.

He tried again. "I was just wondering… would you like to come to Hogsmeade with me when we go next weekend?"

"Oh.” 

Lily blinked. Well, that was unexpected. But, considering his offer, she didn’t see why not. She hadn’t really thought about Zeke that way, but she liked dates, he was nice, and quite good-looking. And she didn’t have a date for the next Hogsmeade trip yet.

"Okay." She smiled at him. "That’d be nice."

He turned slightly red, and looked delighted—a little more delighted than Lily thought the occasion really called for. It was only Hogsmeade. 

"Really?" he asked.

"Course, why not?" 

“Great! Well, er, yeah, great. I’ll, um… Well, we can arrange a time and stuff, right? I’ll see you around before then.”

“Yeah, okay. See you around.” Lily still felt slightly nonplussed by his reaction as he departed. She turned to Meri, beside her. “Well, that was weird. You don't mind, do you, Mer?" 

If Zeke hadn’t asked her, she would have gone with Meri. But Meri had never seemed to mind when Lily had a date. After all, they had plenty of other friends. 

"No, course not," Meri said. "I'll go with some of the others. But Lil, why are you actually going with Zeke?"

"Why not?" Lily took a slice of toast. "I like him."

"But do you like him like _that_?”

Lily thought about this. "I don't know. He's quite cute. And nice."

"But do you want him to be your boyfriend?"

Lily laughed, genuinely amused by this idea. She'd been on quite a few dates in the second half of the previous year, but she had never had what she'd call a boyfriend, and had never really wanted one either.

“No, of course not. It’s just a date.”

"But Lily, don't you get it? That's what he wants. That's why he asked you. It’s why he’s kept hanging around us this term."

"He doesn’t keep _hanging around us_ ,” Lily said, looking at Meri in bemusement. “He’s your friend, isn’t he? And a Hogsmeade date’s just a bit of fun. It’s nothing serious.”

Meri opened her mouth, as if to protest, then closed it again, and sighed.

“Okay, if you say so,” she said. “Just… just…” She paused.

“Just what?” Lily prompted.

“Just be careful, Lil.”

~~~

Meri, on her way out of the Great Hall, was stopped by Hugo Weasley calling her name.

Lily had left ahead of her, because she had Divination, which took longer to walk to than Meri’s Arithmancy class. Hugo also took Arithmancy, so Meri waited for him to catch her up, and they walked on together.

Her mood was worse than it had been before breakfast. She tried not to let it get to her, but every time she thought she had those inconvenient feelings squashed down firmly, something happened, and they escaped all over the place. Zeke was meant to be _hers._ Which was stupid and irrational and unfair, because life didn’t work like that, and it was nobody’s fault, and she had never told him, or Lily, or anyone else about it.

And ‘it’ was nothing more than a silly little girl’s crush. It was tiny, eight-year-old Meri gazing wide-eyed at nearly-ten-year-old Zeke. He hadn’t taken any notice of her for the past five years, so it was ridiculous that she even still _had_ feelings for him.

“So,” Hugo said, as they left the hall, his face a mask of gleeful anticipation, “what did Lily say?”

Meri looked at him, her pace slowing. “What d’you mean?” She was starting to have a horrible suspicion.

“Duh. I saw Zeke talking to her. And he looked like he’d just won a million galleons when he walked away, so I assume she said yes.”

Meri’s suspicion increased tenfold.

“How do you even know Zeke Lucas? And how do you know what he was asking Lily?”

“Well, he’s Rose’s year. He came to her birthday thing in the summer, and started asking me questions about Lily. It was pretty easy to work out he liked her. So I’ve been helping him plan his strategy,” he finished, proudly.

For a moment, Meri could find no words. Part of her wanted to yell at him. Or just to yell, not specially at Hugo. To shout about the _unfairness_ of it all, about how no boy ever noticed her when she was sitting next to Lily, and how that didn’t even matter, except when it came to one boy. One boy who still chose Lily.

“Couldn’t you have at least found out whether Lily liked him or not first?” she said, dully, instead.

Hugo didn’t seem to notice her tone of voice.

“I was pretty sure she’d say yes, if he got to know her a bit first,” he said. “Lily always says yes if she likes someone. I mean, she doesn’t have to be madly in love with them—or even fancy them, really. She’ll go on a date with anyone half decent. But a date’s the first step, right?”

He beamed at Meri, obviously expecting her to share his delight. She managed a smile that was more of a grimace. The worst part was that Lily didn’t even care about Zeke. Not like that. But she might start to, and then that would be the end of it. Meri couldn’t get in the way. She’d just have to hide it all away inside and forget about it, which was pretty much what she’d been doing anyway. At least nobody knew. It had better stay that way.

“Hugo, you’re an idiot,” she said, with feeling, because that, at least, was true.

~~~

Lily and Meri weren't the only people to have seen the papers that morning. The first years might have been oblivious, but Rose Weasley scanned the page in silence, and then tossed it in front of James as she got up to leave.

It landed on top of his breakfast, and he swore casually at her, but she had not waited, and was already half way out of the hall with Emmy Brooke and Helena Green. James glanced down at the newspaper she had thrown at him, and the headline caught his eye. Frowning, he picked it up and read it. His frown deepened.

Louis joined James a few moments later, looking dishevelled and grumpy, as he always did in the mornings. He pushed himself into the next-door space, and helped himself to coffee and toast before looking at James.

When he did look, Louis stared at his cousin for a few moments, while he chewed the large mouthful he had taken and took a gulp of coffee, waiting for his brain to catch up with his eyes.

"Since when do you read the paper?" he asked, at last. "And why has it got egg yolk all over it?"

James passed him the newspaper. "Have a look at that."

Louis looked at it, still eating the piece of toast. He looked disgusted.

"That's sick!"

"That's ex-Death Eaters for you," said James, looking over at the Slytherin table. "I can't believe the Malfoys didn't end up in Azkaban, where they deserved to be."

"It was your dad who kept them out of it," Louis pointed out, having finally woken up completely.

"Yeah, well," James said. "Maybe he made a mistake. If this is true..."

Louis shrugged. "They'll get them this time, if it is. They've already got one of them. Astoria Malfoy. That's Malfoy's mum, isn't it?"

"Must be," James agreed. "I wonder if it was her or her husband. Either way, Dad and Uncle Ron won't be likely to let them get away with it this time. It's ages since something like this happened. Bloody Malfoys. They're all the same."

~~~

Scorpius saw the paper too, and promptly looked ill with horror. Calypso, reading over his shoulder, gazed at him in concern.

"Scorp..." she began.

"Don't say anything," he said harshly, and stared again at the sentence that had most concerned him. 

It wasn't the stuff about his father having been a Death Eater; he knew all that, and he heard about it on a regular basis. It was the sentence about his mother 'helping the Aurors with their inquiries' that made his heart sink.

"It's bollocks," he muttered. "It's a load of shit, as usual. She wouldn't. Not _Mum_... It's ridiculous."

"Of course it is," Calypso agreed. "It's the _Daily Prophet._ They've probably got it all wrong. Who knows what really happened? It keeps saying that the whole story's 'unconfirmed.' It might _all_ be a load of crap."

But it wasn't all a load of crap. Scorpius knew that it wasn't, because he had received a frantic set of texts from Hazel, telling him all about it. It had really happened, and all the signs were of the Imperius Curse.

But the idea that his mother could have had something to do with it was ludicrous. She had been there though; Hazel had said so. Perhaps she was just a witness. That must be it. Maybe she wasn’t under suspicion at all, and it was just the _Daily Prophet_ making a better story of it.

Other people, on the other hand, seemed to be rather more willing to believe the _Prophet_ 's version of events. Several of his housemates made a point of coming up to him and asking him whether it was true that his mother had been arrested for Imperiusing a Muggle. Most of them were only interested in the scandal of the thing, but more than a few were clearly amused by the Malfoy family being dragged down. The odd one even seemed admiring. 

Scorpius decided quickly that he could do without this sort of attention.

Unfortunately, he also bumped into James Potter and his friends, as he was coming out of Transfiguration.

"Seen the paper?" Potter asked Adam Carson loudly, shooting a glance at Scorpius as he passed close by the sixth years. "At their old tricks again!"

"Aren't they?" Scorpius was unable able to resist responding. "The _Prophet_ ought to have restrictions placed on what they can print. Thought they'd got rid of that with Rita Skeeter, but the current lot are obviously no better."

He was fully aware that Mrs Potter worked for the _Prophet_ —Not that he thought she would have had anything to do with this article, because she edited the sports section, and it was a cheap shot, but something about Potter brought out the worst in him.

Potter narrowed his eyes. "How's your mum, Malfoy? I heard she was, er, what was it? _'Helping the Aurors with their investigation.'_ Hope she's not too _upset_ by it all."

The words jolted through Scorpius. His mum had spent most of the summer—not to mention the months before it—weak and ill and exhausted, and now this happened to her. And James Potter thought it was funny. He gritted his teeth, willing himself not to give Potter any more fuel.

"My mother was a _witness,_ Potter, which you'd know, if your dad trusted you enough to tell you anything about what's going on,"

Not that Scorpius’s parents had told him anything either. He’d written to them after the texts from Hazel, but there had been no reply yet. And they’d left him to read about this in the paper. James Potter didn’t know that, though, and he could tell the bolt had gone home. Potter was scowling, and opened his mouth, presumably to retort, but Scorpius turned away. Potter could win any argument by simply taking no notice of anything the other person said, and Scorpius had other things to worry about. 

He walked away, not turning back, even when Potter called after him.

"You Malfoys are all the same! You can try and persuade us it was all a mistake, but you don't change! You'll always be evil bastards!"

~~~

"James!" Fenella Belby hissed in his ear.

James turned to look at her. He was annoyed; he felt that Malfoy had somehow managed to have the best of the argument, and, although James had had the last word, that was less satisfying when Malfoy had not even turned around.

"What?" he demanded, and then he saw the small group of Gryffindor first-years, who had just emerged from the classroom opposite.

Iseult Malfoy’s face was turned away from him, as if trying not to be seen, but he caught a glimpse of a scarlet cheek behind her bobbed, dark hair. Alice Longbottom, however, glared at him, her round face pink, and her small frame almost sizzling with protective anger. 

Annoyance turned to dismay. He hadn’t intended that. Alice didn’t wait to speak to him, however, but turned on her heel and marched away, her hand tucked into Iseult Malfoy’s arm.

"Oh, bugger," James said under his breath, and glanced guiltily at his friends. 

Fenella raised her eyebrows.

"Well, I didn't know she was there, did I?" he said, defensively. "I was only having a go at Malfoy."

"Anyway, I reckon it's young Longbottom you need to watch out for," Adam joked, lightening the mood. "Did you see the look she gave you? You're in trouble there, Jamie."

James laughed, still feeling a bit bad. He hadn’t meant to upset the kid, no matter who her family was. And he was fond of Alice, too, who was almost like family. Still, they were only a couple of eleven-year-olds. They’d get over it, right?


	5. Hogsmeade Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A precious artefact is stolen. Meanwhile, James and Scorpius come to blows, and Meri Hewitt goes missing.

A small group of fourth-years sat squeezed around a table in the Three Broomsticks. The pub was as crowded and noisy as it always was on the days the students came down from Hogwarts. Meri found herself perched on the edge of a seat, with Claire Baynard occupying the rest of it, and holding the edge of the table to stop herself toppling off. It wasn't very comfortable.

"Anyone fancy a game of cards?" Rufus Magorian asked, producing his deck of Exploding Snap. 

There was agreement around the table, and Meri sighed. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy a game of snap sometimes, but it wasn't exactly her idea of a fun day out. She wondered what Lily was doing. Probably kissing Zeke Lucas in the woods somewhere. God, Lily could be… no, not stupid. Just thoughtless. That was the word. Lily just didn't think about things properly. Poor Zeke.

Suddenly, Meri wasn't in the mood for being here any more. She wanted to be outside in the fresh air, instead of the close warmth of the pub, which seemed a little claustrophobic.

She stood up abruptly as Rufus began to deal the cards out, and the others looked up at her in surprise.

"I think I'm going to head back," she said, giving them half a smile. "I… I've got a lot of work to do. I'll see you later."

It wasn't true; she had already finished all her work. But she wanted to be by herself, and it was an excuse. She looked back through the throng of people as she reached the door. Rufus was dealing the cards and the others were watching him and chatting idly. They didn't look up as she left the pub.

~~~

"It isn't fair," Alice Longbottom said, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms across her chest. "I mean, I've been to Hogsmeade loads of times! I come here all the time in the holidays when Dad's got work to do, and he lets me run around wherever I want, even down to Hogsmeade. What do they think's going to happen to us? It isn't fair that first-years aren't allowed to go there."

Jake, perched on the arm of another chair, looked around him for inspiration.

"Are there any secret passages here?" he asked, suddenly.

Alice nodded. "Yes, lots. I don't know them though. And they're out of bounds."

Jake looked thoughtfully at the panelled walls of the common room. "I wonder if we could find any." He slid off his seat and went up to the wall, then held his ear to it and knocked. "You're supposed to be able to hear it hollow behind, if there's a passage."

"If you want secret passages," a voice said behind them, "you want James Potter's map."

They turned to find two second-years standing behind them. One - the one who had spoken - was a boy with sandy-coloured hair, freckles and an Irish accent, and the other a girl with short dark curls and wide brown eyes. Issie did not know either of them, but Alice's face had brightened.

"Oh yes! I knew about that! Only isn't it really Uncle Harry's, not James's?"

"What map?" demanded Jake. "A map of secret passages?"

The two second-years looked at each other.

"If you really want to know about it," the girl said, "we know who'll know."

"It would be pretty good to find the passages," the boy added. "With or without the map." He suddenly grinned at them. "You'd better come with us. I'm Pádraig Finnigan, by the way. I know you, of course," he said to Alice, then looked at Issie. "And I know you're Iseult Malfoy. What's your name?" he asked Jake.

"Jake Nelson," Jake replied.

"And I'm Artemis Magorian," the girl said.

"You're Rufus's sister, aren't you?" said Alice. "He's friends with Hugo and Lily."

"Yep, unfortunately," Artemis said cheerfully. "But anyway, there aren't any passages in here - least, I've never heard of any. So come on."

"How do you two know each other?" Jake asked Alice and Pádraig as they left the common room.

"Oh, our mums and dads were friends at Hogwarts," said Alice.

Issie was silent. If Pádraig's parents had been at school with Alice's parents, they must have been at school with hers too, but they probably had not been friends. She couldn't move in Gryffindor without finding people her dad probably wouldn't want her hanging around with. The reply she'd had to her first letter had been short; she knew it was probably because Mum hadn't been feeling well, with the baby coming, and because of what had happened with that Muggle girl. Dad had never been very good at writing long letters. But still, she wished they'd said more. They'd hardly mentioned her being in Gryffindor at all, and she was sure it was because they were secretly angry and disappointed.

Pádraig and Artemis led them downstairs towards the library, but before they got there, they turned onto a side passage, and at the top of a flight of stairs, three other second-years were waiting. 

"Lucy!" Alice exclaimed, and one of the three, a girl with straight brown hair in a ponytail, turned towards them.

"Oh, hey, Alice!" She looked questioningly at Pádraig and Artemis. "What's going on?"

"They were looking for secret passages." Pádraig jerked his head at the first-years. "And we thought it'd be fun to help, and you know about the passages, so we brought them along."

"These are Jake and Issie," Alice said quickly. "It was Jake's idea to look for passages. And this is Lucy Weasley. And Tilly Thomas," she added, looking at the other girl with Lucy, who had black braids and a Ravenclaw tie. "And..." She hesitated, looking at the final boy, who had fair hair, and a Hufflepuff tie like Lucy's. 

"Max Bailley," he introduced himself with a grin. "Pretty good idea, to explore the passages."

Lucy, the youngest of the Weasley cousins, was looking thoughtful. "I don't really know any passages," she said. "I've heard about some, but that's it."

"But James has a map, doesn't he?" Artemis said. "I'm sure you said that."

"Yes," Lucy agreed. "Uncle Harry's dad made it, and Jamie pinched it. But he never let me look at it. I only saw it once, years ago, and not properly. It was when James first took it out of Uncle Harry's drawer, and he was showing Louis. I think the others were playing outside or something, but I was reading a book behind the sofa, and they didn't know I was there. He showed Louis how it worked, and I saw. I was only about eight though, so I don't really remember."

"Could we get hold of it?" Pádraig asked eagerly.

"How can we, if James has got it?" Tilly protested.

"Well, it wouldn't be too hard to find," Lucy said. "It'll be in his dormitory."

Issie looked from face to face. The second years were looking excited by the idea, but not entirely sure. Jake also seemed keen, although Alice looked worried. Issie didn't think James Potter would be at all pleased to have his map stolen, but she remembered the things he had said about her family to Scorpius. She quite liked the idea of taking something that belonged to him in revenge.

"Well, we'd better get it now, then," she said. "They're all at Hogsmeade, so it'll be easy."

Jake and Alice looked at her in surprise, and she felt her cheeks get a little warm. She supposed that since she'd been put in Gryffindor, she'd been quieter than usual, and that was what they were used to. The second-years, though, were grinning at each other.

"She's right," Tilly remarked. "If we go now, we'll have all afternoon before most of them are back."

"D'you think we should?" Alice said doubtfully. "He'll be really angry if he finds out."

"Who cares? It's only Jamie," Lucy said airily. "He stole it from Uncle Harry himself, so he can't say much. Anyway, he won't know, will he? We can put it back before he comes back, and even if he realised it had gone, he wouldn't know it was us."

"Oh, come on, Alice," Jake coaxed. "It's only a bit of fun. And anyway, it serves him right for what he said about Issie's family that time."

"Fine then," Alice said reluctantly. "But don't blame me if James puts hexes on us all!"

They returned to the Gryffindor common room. Tilly suggested that they should not all go, as eight of them would attract too much attention. After a brief discussion, it was decided that Lucy ought to go, as she would be able to identify the map, and hopefully also which bed was James's. Pádraig and Jake would go with her, since they slept in the Gryffindor boys' dormitories, and it would look less suspicious if she went up with them. And Issie said she also wanted to come, which was permitted, since the second-years had by now heard about James's unguarded remark about Malfoys, and even Lucy agreed that Issie deserved some pay back. The others would wait outside for them.

They sauntered casually through the common room to the stairs up to the boys' dormitories, trying not to look as though they were doing anything special. Nobody took any notice of them; Lucy, of course, should not have been there, as she was a Hufflepuff, but as it was relatively common for her and her friends to be in each others' common rooms, nobody would think it was strange. Their air of nonchalance broke down as they reached the top of the stairs.

"Come on!" Lucy said, giggling helplessly, and they ran down the corridor to the seventh year dormitory.

"There's nobody in there, is there?" Jake asked breathlessly.

"Of course not," Lucy said scornfully, but she looked hesitantly at the door, as if slightly thrown by this suggestion. Boldly, Iseult stepped forwards, grasped the handle and pushed. They held their breath, but nobody shouted at them from the other side of the door.

All inclined to giggle, they crept in.

"Which is James' bed?" whispered Pádraig.

Lucy looked over the beds. "This one," she said, at last.

They crowded round. She pointed at a battered Quidditch poster of a team in hideous brown and mustard yellow strips.

"Barnstaple Bears. James's team." Lucy glanced around. "And that's his broom. And those notes are in his handwriting."

Issie knelt on the floor and pulled James' trunk out from under his bed. It was locked, but Lucy pointed her wand.

" _Alohomora._ "

The lock sprang open, and Issie hauled the lid open. A musty smell of unwashed socks escaped. There were a whole host of things in the bottom; odd socks, crumpled paper, a few books and a Muggle magazine, which Pádraig picked up and then dropped as though it had burned him when he saw the practically naked young woman posing on the front. Lucy grinned and picked it up.

"I'm taking this. And if James is ever mean, I'll threaten to show it to Aunt Ginny."

And underneath it all was an old piece of parchment, which Lucy lifted with reverent fingers.

"Is that it?" Pádraig asked.

"How does it work?" Jake whispered.

"Let's get out of here and take it to the others, before someone comes and catches us," Lucy said.

So they repaired the lock on the trunk, put it back where they'd found it, and made their way back downstairs and out of the common room.

"Did you get it?" Max asked eagerly.

Lucy nodded. "Yes, here it is. But come on, let's get somewhere private."

They found a small, empty side corridor, and everyone crowded round Lucy, who unfolded the map and held it out in front of her.

"Now," she muttered to herself. "What did James say?" She hesitated for a moment, then tried: "I swear that I am up to mischief. No, that's not right. I swear that I am up to no good."

Nothing happened.

"I'm sure that was it!" she said, crossly. "I _promise_ that I am up to no good?"

Nothing. Lucy frowned, then grinned.

"Got it! I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"

And writing began to appear on the map.

" _Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers, are proud to present… THE MARAUDER'S MAP_ " And then the writing faded and in its place an intricate web of thin lines appeared.

"Wow," breathed Iseult as the map came into view.

"Who are those people?" asked Jake. "Those… Moony and Wormfoot and the others."

"I don't know," Lucy admitted. "I'm not sure they're real people. Uncle Harry's dad made it."

"What are all those dots moving around?" Alice peered more closely at the map. "They've all got names on them. Are they people?"

"They're all the people in the castle," Lucy told her. "Look, you can see Professor Morrison in his office."

Issie had been studying the map carefully.

"We could get to Hogsmeade with this," she said. "We could get anywhere. Look at all the secret passages. It's amazing!"

"Let's go to Hogsmeade!" Jake exclaimed, eyes shining.

"What, now?" asked Lucy disparagingly. "When most of the school's milling about there? We'd be seen. Better to go another time, when everybody else is here. I reckon we should explore the school instead. We can avoid teachers; the map'll tell us if they're coming."

Suddenly, the afternoon was no longer dull. They happily explored unknown corridors and secret passages and surprising rooms, hiding from teachers as they appeared (even when there was no real need to, because they weren't anywhere that was forbidden). They discovered that the map also revealed the passwords for various entrances that had hitherto been mysteries, and ended up in the kitchens, coming away armed with a good supply of food.

The only thing that they would have liked to see but which the map gave no clues to, was the whereabouts of the famous Chamber of Secrets. Alice was sure she'd heard that it was in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and they had a look around in there (the boys were a little bit reluctant to go in) but could find no sign of anything that could be an entrance, and Myrtle herself did not appear to be asked, though Lucy called hopefully.

At the end of a happy afternoon, they returned to the Gryffindor common room, intending to replace the map. At the Portrait Hole, Issie, who had ended up holding it last, held it up and Lucy announced that the Mischief was Managed. They watched with fascinated eyes as the thin lines crawled back into the parchment.

Then voices were heard.

"Quick, hide it!" hissed Lucy.

Round the corner came a small group of fifth-years, including Lucy's sister Molly, who was a prefect. Swiftly, Issie stuffed the map inside her jumper and folded her arms over it. As they drew level, Molly turned to the crowd of first and second-years with a frown.

"What are you doing here, Lucy?"

"Nothing," said Lucy.

Molly looked suspiciously at her, but said no more, continuing into the common room with her friends. Lucy looked round at the others.

"Well, we can't go in there now." She indicated herself, Max and Tilly. "Molly'll just kick us out again. You lot'll have to put it back."

However, they did not get a chance that evening, for they had hardly entered the common room before another group of older students came in, including a couple of seventh-year boys, and made their way up towards their dormitories, all talking eagerly about some fight that had happened down in the village. With so many people around, they couldn't risk it, and all they could do was keep the map out of sight, and hope that James Potter wouldn't notice his loss.

~~~

"Ah, look at them all." Louis Weasley watched a group of chattering third-years coming out of Honeydukes, laden with their purchases. "So excited, bless their hearts."

James turned round in amusement. "I know. Hard to believe we were that excited about Hogsmeade trips once. The place gets a bit old after four years, doesn't it?"

He pointed his wand casually at one of the third-years' bags, and watched with interest as it split open and the boy stood there swearing, having to make the decision between letting some of the sweets out of his grasp and picking up his things.

"James!" One of the figures just in front of Louis and James had turned and spotted this stunt. "What did you do that for?"

"Because I'm bored," James said. "And it was harmless, so don't start, Nell."

"Don't call me Nell," the Head Girl said crossly 

He just grinned at her. Their banter was always good-natured; they had been friends since their first morning at Hogwarts.

"Oh look," Adam Carson, who had been walking with Fenella, gave a nod in the other direction. "Here comes some better sport, James."

James looked, and his face broke into a grin at the sight of the three sixth-year Slytherins approaching.

"James, don't you dare," said Fenella warningly. "I do not want to have to give you detention. And don't encourage him, Adam."

James grinned at her. "You'd better look the other way then, Nell." He raised his voice. "All right, Malfoy?"

Scorpius turned and looked coolly at James.

"Well, I was a bit better a few minutes ago, before you started talking to me," he said politely. "How are you feeling yourself?"

James narrowed his eyes. Behind him, he heard Fenella give a frustrated hiss, turn on her heel and stalk into the Three Broomsticks. He thought she might have pulled one or both of the Carson twins with her, which changed the odds slightly, but he wasn't too worried. Louis was still standing beside him.

The trouble James had with Malfoy was that he was always so bloody difficult to provoke. If he hadn't been, maybe the challenge wouldn't have been so hard to resist. But he always just shrugged, with that smug little smile, like he didn't give a toss what James had to say. It pushed James to go further, to try to goad a reaction out of him.

"Have they arrested your mother yet, Malfoy?" he asked.

It was a spell fired in the dark. There had been more speculation in the news every day, but no more solid facts, and as far as anyone knew, Astoria Malfoy was not facing any charges. But mention of Malfoy's mother had worked last time, and it almost worked this time.

The other boy's eyes flashed, but he spoke calmly. "I'm surprised you don't know the answer to that without asking me."

James smirked. "Ah, no, Malfoy. I'm afraid your mother and I aren't as _close_ as we used to be."

"Piss off, Potter!" It was Zabini who spoke, her hand gripping Malfoy's arm. 

James noticed that Malfoy had his wand in his hand now, and slid his own out, just in case. He was pleased with the way this was going, but he wanted to be able to react quickly if he needed to.

"Jealous, are you, Zabini?" he said. "I know you'd have liked to have me for yourself, but I'm afraid I don't do Slytherins. You never know where they've been."

"In your dreams, Potter." Zabini rolled her eyes. "I know with the size of your ego, it's hard for you to believe that any woman wouldn't be gagging for you, but there you go…"

"Actually, Potter." Malfoy appeared to have got control of himself again. "My mother was in Slytherin too, you know, so it's good to know she's actually safe from your sick fantasies. You know, sometimes I wonder if any of the stories you like to spread around are any more than fantasies; usually, the only people who talk as much about their own sex lives as you do are the people who've never actually had a sex life."

The other two Slytherins laughed.

"Interesting theory, Scorp," said Urquhart thoughtfully. "Potter the virgin? Personally, I had my bets on him being gay. In denial, you know? Actually, that would be kind of interesting wouldn't it?" His eyes slid to Louis. "After all, everyone knows what Weasley prefers. Never thought of the two of them being like that, though."

Louis roared with laughter, throwing his arm round James' shoulders. "That's right, Urquhart. You've guessed our secret. You should join us some time; sessions are open to all. Even Slytherins. Don't listen to James here. We're not really that fussy."

Urquhart pulled a disgusted face, and James grinned.

"What's the matter, Urquhart? Got a problem with gay people? Oh yeah, I forgot, Slytherins are prejudiced bastards. Why don't you try spreading your theory around then? Thing is, I don't actually care. Or how about yours, Malfoy? That one might backfire on you, actually. How many girlfriends have you had again?"

"Scorp, Dan, why don't you take Weasley's advice?" Zabini muttered, perfectly audibly. "Don't listen to Potter. We ought to feel sorry for him, really. He can't help being an arrogant knobend, after all. It comes of being a celebrity when you've actually never done anything to be famous for yourself. I suppose acting like this makes him believe he might actually have lasted five minutes if he'd ever come up against You-Know-Who. Pathetic, really."

James' brows snapped down furiously at this, but Malfoy spoke before he could retort.

"Yeah, you're right Cal. Don't mind if we leave you to it, do you, Potter? We were having a decent conversation before you decided to join in."

And he turned and walked away, Urquhart and Zabini following him.

"Give my regards to your mum when you see her, Malfoy," James called after him, anger flickering inside him, driving him to have one last shot. "Tell her I might visit her in Azkaban, okay?"

The hex hit the middle of his back as he turned away, and he stumbled, a burning pain shooting through him where it had hit. He swore, and spun round, but Louis had got there first, and Dannicus Urquhart was on the ground, his legs having suddenly become incapable of holding him up. James's aim was a little better, and tentacles sprouted from Malfoy's face, even as James's skin exploded in a scarlet rash from Zabini's wand.

"Stop it!" a voice shouted.

James, who had been knocked to his knees by the sudden excruciating discomfort, saw that Fenella had returned, and several other people with her, spilling from the doors of the pub to see what all the noise was about.

"James. Sirius. Potter. You are. A fucking. Prat," Fenella hissed into his ear, as she bent to haul him up.

"So are you giving me a detention?" he murmured with a grin, knowing that she never would. She replied by hitting him exactly where Malfoy's first hex had hit him in the back, and he gasped with pain.

"Ah! Fuck, what did the bastard use?"

He looked round suddenly at where Malfoy, tentacles still sprouting painfully from his face, was helping Zabini pull Urquhart more or less upright.

"James, if you dare start anything again now, I will give you detention, I swear I will!" said Fenella, seeing where his gaze had fallen.

James shook his head. "Don't worry, Fen. I just don't get what got into him."

"What got into him?" Fenella repeated incredulously. "James, you just deliberately baited him!"

"I know. But the thing is, he never fires the first hex." His eyes glittered suddenly. "I'm not sure what it was I said, but I just provoked Scorpus Malfoy into firing first. A victory, I think."

~~~

Lily breezed into the common room at the end of the afternoon looking tousled and cheerful. She glanced round for Meri, didn't see her, and wandered over to Rufus instead.

"Have you seen Meri?" she asked.

Rufus looked up from the Potions essay he was scowling over. "What? Oh… No, sorry."

Lily frowned. "I thought she went to Hogsmeade with you."

"She did, but she came back early, before James started the fight with Malfoy. She seemed a bit moody. Hey, Lil, have you done Mundy's essay yet? Did you find anything about the properties of...?"

"Well, she isn't here, is she?" Lily interrupted, "And it isn't like Meri to be moody."

Rufus grinned. "No, she's always merry." He looked expectantly at Lily, who groaned.

"Not funny, Rufus."

"Oh, here you are, Lily." Her cousin Rose appeared suddenly from behind her. " How was the date? I'm assuming you had fun, judging by the time you've come back. Just to warn you, Jamie's being all suspicious and older-brotherly. And he's a bit grumpy, because the effects of whatever jinx Zabini used on him this afternoon don't apparently disappear instantly."

Lily shrugged this off with a scowl. "Well, he can forget it. There's no need for it; it's only a bit of fun. It's none of his business anyway. Have you seen Meri, Rosie?" 

"Meri?" Rose let her eyes drift round the common room. "No, not recently." 

"Hey, Rose," Rufus - who knew Rose well, since he had been good friends with Hugo for years - interrupted. "D'you know anything about the properties of coltsfoot? I can't find it anywhere." 

"No wonder; you're looking under 'c'," said Rose, looking over his shoulder. "Try 't'. The Latin name's Tussilago Farfara. Though why you're writing about coltsfoot for an essay on potions to treat burns, I can't imagine." 

"It doesn't treat burns?" Rufus said in dismay. 

"Well, the word 'tussilago' means 'cough suppressant'," Rose told him. "Here, let's have a look at it." She sat down beside him and started to read his notes over his shoulder. 

Lily left them to it, and drifted off in search of her friend. By the end of half an hour, she was beginning to worry. Rufus, now busy on his essay alone, since Rose had disappeared somewhere, looked up as Lily re-entered the Common Room after a fruitless search of the toilets. 

"Still not found her?" 

She shook her head. "No. Ru, are you sure she said she was coming back up to the castle? Did she seem okay?" 

Rufus thought about this. "Well… she did leave a bit suddenly." He looked a little ashamed of himself. "We didn't take much notice of it, to be honest. But she definitely said she was heading back to school." 

Lily bit her lip. "I hope she's okay." 

"D'you think we should tell someone?" Rufus asked. 

Lily frowned. "I… don't know." 

Of course Meri was okay. Meri was always okay. She could look after herself. It was Lily who was always getting into silly situations, and Meri who always got her out of them. Meri did not do disappearing acts. Lily flopped down in an armchair, looking anxious. She wasn't used to having to worry about Meredith Hewitt. 

"I think we should," Rufus said doubtfully. "It's not like Meri to disappear. Where would she go?" 

But at that moment, the Portrait Hole opened and Meri herself came in, looking breathless and dishevelled. Her eyes searched the common room quickly and fell on Lily and Rufus. She made her way hurriedly over to them. 

"Meri!" Lily said, feeling almost annoyed at the fright she'd had. "What happened to you? Where have you been?" 

"Sorry, Lil. I went for a walk, that's all." She beamed brightly at them, although her eyes did not seem to be focusing properly, and a puzzled expression came over her face as she looked around the room. "How come everyone's back already?" 

"Because it's six o'clock in the evening?" Rufus suggested. 

"Oh." Meri frowned, looking confused. "I must have lost track of time." 

"Lost track of time?" Lily echoed. "Where did you go?" 

Meri's confusion deepened. 

"I... I don't know." 

She still seemed to be having trouble focusing on anything. Lily and Rufus exchanged startled glances. 

"Meri..." Lily said cautiously. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?" 

Meri shook her head, suddenly looking frightened. 

"I... I don't know," she whispered again, sinking down onto the nearest chair. "I don't know what's happening..." 

"Okay." Lily took her friend's arm and spoke with a firmness she wasn't really feeling. "I think you should come to the hospital wing."


	6. And Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James hatches an illegal plan to retrieve his lost property, while the Auror Office investigates an attempted break-in at Hogwarts.

James picked up his broomstick and was about to leave the dormitory when he suddenly stopped and frowned.

Something was wrong. A corner of his trunk was sticking out from under his bed, and he was completely certain it had not been like that earlier. He scowled down at it, scratching absentmindedly at the remains of Zabini's jinx on his forearm. Had somebody been messing around with his things? If so, who? Most people wouldn't dare to touch his stuff, so that narrowed the field a bit. Narrowed it, basically, to Louis, Fenella, the Carson twins, and James's relatives. And maybe Sapphie Jordan, who wasn't very easily intimidated. 

But he knew it hadn't been Louis, Fenella or the Carsons, because he had been in Hogsmeade with them all afternoon, and anyway they wouldn't go into his things without asking him. And Lily had been there too, he knew that for certain. She had apparently been providing a bit of a show with Zeke Lucas, behind the Hog's Head. He had a bone to pick with Lucas about that, but it could wait for now.

He thought about his other cousins. Hugo had been among the crowd to come pouring out of the Three Broomsticks to watch the fight, and hadn't returned to the castle until after James; James had seen him coming up the path behind him, with Magorian and a bunch of others. It certainly wouldn't have been Molly, and Roxy was unlikely. Anyway, neither Roxy nor Hugo could get into the Gryffindor common room without help.

He knelt and pulled his trunk out from under his bed. It didn't look as if had been tampered with, but he was going to make sure. The Muggle lock wouldn't have kept anyone much beyond a first-year out. It was basically only there for show. To show that James Potter didn't want anyone opening his trunk, which ought to have been message enough.

He opened it, and his loss was immediately apparent. He hissed under his breath with the shock. That map was his most prized possession, after his broomstick. Damn it, who knew about it? He had a nasty suspicion that quite a lot of people did. But none of them knew how to use it, did they? No, they couldn't. He had only shown his four closest friends, and he trusted all of them not to have told anybody else.

But his brother or sister or any of his cousins could have found out from a similar source as he had himself, which was from Teddy, via Uncle George. He was fairly sure that Teddy wouldn't have told any of the others (if he had told anyone that piece of information, it would have been James), but any of them could have wheedled it out of Uncle George. He though briefly again of Roxy, Uncle George's own daughter, but no, it couldn't be her. 

Of his list of suspects, that only really left Rose, Al and Sapphie, who were probably the most likely three anyway. He wouldn't put it past them to be all in on it together.

He stood up and went slowly down the stairs. The common room was crowded. Rose was over on the far side with Helena Green. James's own crowd had bagged two sofas, and weren't looking at him; he had told them he was going for a quick fly before dinner. Al and Sapphie were nowhere to be seen.

He stepped up to his friends, and slid onto the sofa beside Annabel. They broke off their conversation and looked at him in surprise.

"That was quick!" Fenella began jokingly.

He interrupted her. "Someone's taken the map."

They didn't need to ask which map. It had been their aide in all adventures since third year. 

"Seriously? Who d'you reckon it was?" Adam asked in a low voice.

"Well..." said James slowly, "I'm thinking Rose or Al at the moment," and he outlined why.

Fenella looked sceptical. "Al? I don't think so, Jamie."

"Yeah, she's right," agreed Adam. "What would Al do with it? He never breaks rules any more. Never did, really, but specially not since he's been a prefect."

"Yeah, but he does have a girlfriend these days," James pointed out. "And have you noticed that they're nowhere to be seen? It's not that easy to find places to be private in this castle. The map's pretty useful that way."

Annabel laughed. "Are you serious, James? I really can't see Al using the map to find places to have sex with Sapphie."

"Yeah, I don't think his mind works like that." Louis grinned. "I mean, d'you honestly think him and Sapphie have even had sex yet?"

"I didn't say having sex," James said. "That was you two. Although," he went on with a grin, "knowing Sapphie as well as I do, I think she'd be more than up for a bit of action in a secret passage."

"James!" said Fenella, her eyebrows going up in a warning. 

"Well, anyway," James went on hastily. "I reckon it's one or more of the three of them. Nobody else would dare go into my stuff."

Fenella rolled her eyes, but said nothing, and Louis leaned forwards, a glint in his eye.

"So… what are we going to do about it?"

James grinned. "Leave it with me, my friends. I've got a plan."

~~~

James knew Rose very well. At one time, pre-Hogwarts, he, Louis, Rose and Albus had been inseparable partners-in-crime. Louis had always been more than happy to go along with whatever scheme they came up with, while Albus had tended to be the conscience of the group, but James and Rose had been the masterminds behind it all. They might have fought violently at times, but they understood each other. And James had no qualms whatsoever about exploiting that.

The day after the Hogsmeade visit and the map theft, he slid into the seat beside hers in the common room and smiled winningly at her. "Hey, Rosie."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you want?"

He widened his eyes into an exaggeratedly wounded expression. "I only came to say hello to my favourite cousin."

"Mmhm." She looked even more suspicious. "I'm not doing your Charms homework for you."

"I've already done my Charms homework," he said smugly, glancing over at the other side of the common room, where Fenella, Louis and the Carsons were still working. 

Rose's eyebrows shot up.

"Wow, you actually finished ahead for once? I'm impressed, Jamie."

He ignored the sarcasm in her voice.

"So, as you're so impressed with me, how do you fancy helping me with something? It's..."

"I knew it!" she broke in triumphantly.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to interrupt?" he said, severely. "Anyway, I thought this might be as interesting for you as for me. But if you don't want to, that's okay. Sorry I asked." 

Wrong idea. He knew it as soon as he'd said it. That sort of bait might work on some people, but not on Rose Weasley. However curious he had made her – and he watched her bite her lip and struggle not to ask him – she had recognised it as bait, and would now rather die than fall into the trap. So after an almost imperceptible inward struggle, she looked casually down at the parchment she was writing on, as if bored by the conversation.

"That's okay," she said absently. "Why don't you ask Al to help? Looks like he's finished his homework too."

He scowled at her, but she was frowning down at her essay.

James glanced over at Albus, although he had no intention of asking him for help with this plan, which involved breaking a number of rules. His brother had his nose in a book as usual, although as Rose had noticed, it wasn't big or thick enough to be a school book. James watched as Sapphie approached him, leaned over the back of his chair and kissed his cheek. Albus looked up, his normally solemn expression breaking into a smile as he turned and spoke to her. 

James's frown deepened. It was a mystery that continually irritated him: How the hell had Albus – scrawny, scruffy, overly serious and, frankly, boring Albus – managed to get someone like Sapphie Jordan?

"How did he manage to catch her?" 

He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but Rose had heard and looked up, amused.

"When she could have had you, you mean?"

"No!" James glowered. "What d'you mean, she could have had me? No, she bloody well couldn't! I don't fancy Sapphie!"

"No?" Rose glanced thoughtfully between him and the couple a few metres away.

"No!" James spluttered, "I mean, okay, she's pretty hot, and I wouldn't say no…"

"Didn't, you mean, not wouldn't," Rose put in, and he glared at her.

"But," he continued, as though he hadn't heard her, "I would never get into a serious relationship with her. I wouldn't get into a serious relationship with anyone; I wasn't made for settling down." Rose choked with laughter at this, but he talked over her. "And if I did, she'd be the last person I'd choose. No, I just meant that her and Al are very different, that's all."

"Watch what you say, Jamie," Rose said. "She is one of my best friends, remember. But I have to agree. They are a bit of an unexpected couple."

"Um," James said in a non-committal way, and then continued, after a pause. "So, Rosie. I really was hoping you could help me out."

"What with?"

"Well, you know how you're so amazing at Potions…?"

"James, I'm not one of your Fan Club. Flattering me isn't going to help. Just tell me what you want, because I was trying to work."

"I wasn't trying to flatter you," he protested. "You really are amazing at Potions. And I got a P at OWLS; I'm hopeless."

"I'm not making you a love potion," she interrupted.

"Would you stop assuming you know what I'm going to say? Anyway," he added with a smirk, "I don't need love potions."

She rolled her eyes. "Jamie…"

"Okay, okay. I want to make Veritaserum."

"What?" she hissed. "James, that's incredibly complicated magic. And I'm pretty sure it's illegal to do it uncertified. What on earth do you want it for?"

"Since when have you cared about things being against the rules?"

"James, there's a big difference between breaking school rules and breaking laws. If we were caught, we'd be expelled, and our families would probably have to pay huge fines."

He grinned wickedly at her. "But you'll do it."

She frowned. "No I won't."

His grin faded and she went on:

"Not unless you tell me what it's for. And maybe not then, if I don't like it."

"When did you grow a conscience?" he muttered. "Okay, fine. I'll tell you. I only want to plan a little prank on some Slytherins…"

~~~

Harry put down his quill at the knock on the door, and looked up as Ron's face came round it. He smiled a welcome.

"Harry," Ron said. "Got a minute?"

"As many minutes as you want to distract me for." Harry stretched his cramped fingers. "Bloody signatures."

Ron did not return his friend's smile as he came into the room.

"There's been another incident."

"Oh?" Harry looked alert. "What kind of incident?"

"Well," Ron looked at him. "First of all, nothing too serious has come of it. It could have been nasty, but there's no lasting damage, thank Merlin. You're not going to like it, though."

"What?" Harry demanded. "What's happened, Ron?"

"Unauthorised persons trying to get into Hogwarts. Or apparently trying to get into Hogwarts," Ron stated simply.

"What?" Harry stared at him, his voice sharp with concern. "Who?"

"We don't know. They didn't manage it, obviously. Seems to have been a bit of a bungled attempt. But there was a student involved."

"Involved? Involved how?"

"Well, she seems to have taken the long route back from Hogsmeade, by herself, and encountered the would-be trespassers in the woods. What exactly happened we don't know, because they seem to have performed some botched memory charm on her. She's going to be fine," he hastened to assure Harry. "She doesn't seem to have lost any important memories. She just came back quite confused and not at all like herself. She's still not sure what happened in the woods, but other than that, she's back to normal. They've taken her to St Mungo's to check her over, but she should be fine."

"Have you seen her?" Harry asked.

"Not personally; I put Liv Andrews in charge of it. She just got back."

"What's the student's name? Anyone we know?"

"Well, yes, actually. At least, I've never met her, but I think you know her, and we both know her mother. It's Meredith Hewitt."

"Good grief!" Harry said. "Has anyone told Lavender?"

"Of course." Ron nodded. "She's at St Mungo's now too. She wanted to be the one to investigate, but we suggested that she might be a bit close to the case. So she's there as the mother of the victim, not as an Auror. Although I daresay she'll want to be fairly involved."

"What exactly happened?" Harry asked. "And when?"

"It was Saturday afternoon," Ron replied. "I'm not sure exactly what time. Andrews has sent Jefferson up to Hogwarts to talk to the staff and the students who were with Meri yesterday. The poor kid's quite confused about it all herself, so we'll have a clearer picture once he's got a few other accounts of it. As I say, she was walking back from Hogsmeade. Last thing she remembers clearly is leaving the Three Broomsticks. Then apparently everything's a blur, until she found herself outside the school gates. She came into the school, thinking she was back ahead of everybody, and found that she'd been gone for hours.

"Nothing else seems to have been done to her, though. Physically, she's fine, according to the people at St Mungo's. She was very confused when she got back to the school though, and she says that Lily took her to the Hospital Wing. Hetty Booth realised that something serious was the matter and transferred her to St Mungo's yesterday. It took the Healers some time to be sure that it really was a memory charm job, and they contacted us a couple of hours ago. You were in the meeting with the Minister at the time, or you'd have heard about it straight away."

Harry nodded, taking all this in. "Who was the last to see her, before this happened?"

"Well, we can't be certain, because she doesn't remember anything after she left the pub. You would have thought people would have seen her walking through Hogsmeade, but we'll have to wait for the results of Jefferson's investigations at the school before we know. The last people she remembers speaking to, though, are a bunch of other fourth-years in the Three Broomsticks. Including Hugo but not Lily, apparently."

"Oh," Harry frowned. "Where was Lily?"

"I don't know. Jefferson's speaking to all the kids involved. I imagine he'll find out."

Derek Jefferson returned some time later with handfuls of interviews written on pieces of parchment. He was a conscientious interviewer, and the statements he had gathered were comprehensive, if a little difficult to construct a coherent story from, given that different bits had come from several different students, none of whom had been witness to more than a part of the afternoon's events. Harry and Ron went through them together.

"Right," said Harry. "I'm beginning to get this straight. According to all this, at 1.15 pm or thereabouts – nobody seems to be sure of the exact time – Meredith Hewitt entered the Three Broomsticks in the company of Hugo Weasley, Ninian Penhallow, Rufus Magorian, Claire Baynard and Freya Robbins. They were seen by pub staff and several other students. She stayed for around twenty minutes. Up to that point, all the others say she was acting entirely normally." He looked up from the parchment he was looking at. "Was it normal for her to go to Hogsmeade with all that crowd? I would have expected her to be with Lily, to be honest."

"None of them suggest that it was that unusual," Ron pointed out. "The whole crowd of them are friends, after all."

"Hm." Harry returned to the reports. "So, after they'd been in the pub about twenty minutes, Meri suddenly stood up and announced that she was going back to school, as she had work to do. All the others agree that she wasn't behaving quite normally at that point, but they didn't take all that much notice; just assumed she wasn't in a very good mood. Meri herself says that her memories of the time in the pub are perfectly clear. She says she just had a headache, and decided to return to the castle, which is presumably the truth, since I can't think of a reason for her to lie."

"Anyway, so she left the pub," Ron went on. "She was seen by several other students going through Hogsmeade. That was some time before 1.45."

"How do we know that?" Harry scanned the statements, and Ron found a relevant one, and looked over it.

"Because at about 1.45, there was an, er, incident immediately outside the pub," he told Harry. "One of the waitresses in the pub gave us the time, and Fenella Belby, the Head Girl, confirms it."

"What kind of incident?" Harry demanded, a sudden suspicion growing on him. If Fenella was there, James would have been too, and Ron was suddenly studying the report in great detail.

"Well..." Ron said slowly, "Hugo calls it here 'a bloody good fight.' Fenella Belby calls it 'a stupid little argument.'"

"It was Jamie, wasn't it?" Harry said, in resigned tones.

"Er… yes. 'Fraid so. And Louis. And Scorpius Malfoy, and a young woman named Calypso Zabini – daughter of our old mate Blaise, I believe – and a boy called Dannicus Urquhart. However, it doesn't seem to be particularly relevant, except in confirming the time Meredith left the pub, because she'd gone by the time it started."

"I knew it. Jamie's never far away from Fenella Belby, and if there's a fight in the vicinity, he's bound to be in it. Never mind. If it's irrelevant, I'm going to ignore it. And I'm certainly not going to mention it to Ginny."

Ron chuckled. "Probably best. I might not go out of my way to tell Bill and Fleur about it either; no need to go getting Louis into trouble as well."

"All right," Harry went on. "So then we have several students here who think they remember seeing her walking up Hogsmeade High Street. And then… nothing."

"Nothing," confirmed Ron. "Except that Meri has one clear memory of standing behind a tree and hearing a man's voice say 'So we go in at ten o'clock, and skirt the edge of the Forbidden Forest…' Other than that, all she has is the vague impression that she stumbled upon several people, and that they were planning to break into the school, but no specifics, which is going to make it tricky to prove, even if we ever catch anyone. Then she turns up at the school gate, and wanders inside and up to the Gryffindor Common Room, where she discovers that everyone's got back before her, including Lily. Oh… er… I've just found the bit that tells us where Lily was, if it's of any interest…"

"Oh?" Harry said, curiously.

"Mm. She was with a boy called Zeke Lucas. I think I know that name. Isn't he Rose and Al's year?"

Harry rubbed a hand tiredly across his forehead. "I'm going to have to ignore that as well, aren't I? I don't think it's really fair when your job forces you to investigate the details of your teenage children's lives. I wonder if they realised that we'd inevitably be reading these things."

Ron laughed. "My two seem remarkably innocent, for once. Rosie was apparently nowhere near the whole thing, and Hugo merely a bystander. But anyway, that's it. All we've got, apart from that odd little coincidence."

"Yes. More than a 'little' coincidence, I'd say. The traces are identical?"

"Identical," Ron confirmed. "There's no doubt about it. The wand that performed this spell, and the wand that performed the Imperius Curse on young Fiona Murphy were the same wand."

"And not Astoria Malfoy's wand."

"No. We tested that, of course. But I don't think that they can have been cast by the same hand, you know."

"No, it doesn't look like it," Harry agreed. "That Imperius Curse was a neat little spell by all accounts. Whereas this…"

"Was a very amateur effort," Ron finished. "So, somebody borrowed a wand. Seems like a conspiracy between more than one person."

"Hmm. So we have at least two people – more, if Meri's right about it being a group that she found – who have a motive both for Imperiusing a child in Lancashire, and breaking into Hogwarts. This is getting more and more bizarre."

"What's the betting," said Ron, "that having failed once, they'll try getting into Hogwarts again?"

"They might," agreed Harry, thoughtfully. "And you know, Hogwarts is pretty well protected. But it's protected entirely for the purposes of keeping the students safe, not for catching the intruders. There are things we could do about that. Modifications we could make, so that if anyone did try get in, they wouldn't get out again in a hurry. And you know, I wouldn't mind having a go at working out what exactly they want in Hogwarts. All this may mean another trip up there..."

A grin spread across Ron's face.

"Thought you didn't do field stuff any more," he said.

Harry smiled. "I'm bored of sitting behind a desk. I want to do something. I don't have time immediately, and we should wait and see what they can get from Meri, anyway. But after that…" 

"You know something, Harry?" said Ron, "I reckon you're enjoying yourself."


	7. Bad News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hazel starts her own investigation, and Scorpius and Iseult receive worrying news.

When Hazel had been little, she'd decided that if she couldn't be a witch, she'd be a detective instead. Fired up by the Famous Five and Nancy Drew, she'd kept books of case notes and clues, experimented with orange juice for invisible ink, and tried to convince her friends to write notes in complicated codes. She'd even turned Hogwarts into an investigation, in a determined attempt to work out where it was. She had plied Scorpius for information until he'd finally lent her a huge hardback book called _Hogwarts: A History_ , which he'd said had way more information in it than anything he knew. Hazel had read it cover to cover, but, although it had been a fascinating read, it hadn't helped her very much.

By the time she was about thirteen, she'd given up and more or less moved on from her detective phase. Her case notebooks were gathering dust under her bed.

But now she had a real mystery on her hands.

Scorpius had been unhelpful. He had claimed to know no more than she did, and had promised to ask his parents about it, but she'd heard nothing more from him about that, and he'd evaded her questions about what sort of spell might have been cast on Fiona. In the absence of any proper information, Hazel was determined to find out what she could for herself. 

The mystery deepened when, two days after Fiona returned to school, Hazel tried to talk to Charlotte Davies again, and Charlotte just stared at her in confusion.

"What are you on about, Haze?" She wrinkled her forehead in puzzlement. "I don't remember showing you a video. What was in it?"

Hazel blinked at her, then insisted on seeing the phone. The video had disappeared, and Hazel could guess what had happened. The Magical Ministry must have found it and erased it. Covered things up so that there was no trace that anything had happened. Charlotte remembered nothing about it, and neither did Fiona herself, or any of the other people who'd witnessed it. 

She understood why they'd done it, but the whole thing left a sour taste in Hazel's mouth. How was it right that the people most affected by something like that should have all their memories of it forcibly removed, without their knowledge or consent? That wasn't _dealing_ with the issue, it was brushing it under the carpet. Could memory erasure also remove trauma, or was poor Fiona left to deal with that, without any understanding of where it had come from? 

But somehow, she herself had flown under their radar. They couldn't know that she'd seen the video, and so she was the only person who had seen it and still remembered. Apart, presumably, from Astoria Malfoy.

Hazel knew Scorpius's mum pretty well. She'd always been nice, and, although she had no idea that Hazel knew anything about the world of magic, she'd never seemed to have an issue with Scorpius being friends with her. Mr Malfoy was more distant; he'd never been anything other than polite, but Hazel was less sure of his feelings about her friendship with Scorp. But maybe if she talked to Astoria alone, she could ask some questions. She'd have to be careful not to give away exactly how much she knew, but at least she could mention Fiona's name and see what happened. 

With this thought in mind, Hazel diverted from her usual walk home from school one afternoon, and made her way to the Malfoys' house. It was quarter to four, and Astoria didn't work at the moment, with the difficult pregnancy she'd had, so she ought to be at home alone. Hazel hitched her bag firmly onto her shoulder, took a deep breath and rang the bell, an old-fashioned pull-bell that Hazel knew didn't run on electricity.

Nobody answered. Disheartened, she stepped back and looked up at the house. There was an odd feel to it, somehow. All the curtains were drawn, and she couldn't see any lights on behind them. Of course, Astoria might have just gone to the shops or to meet someone or any of a number of completely reasonable things. But why wouldn't she have opened the curtains?

The baby wasn't due for a month yet, but a sudden worry gnawed at the edge of Hazel's mind, and it didn't go away as she gave up and made her way slowly back down the road.

Back at her own house, she went up to her room and, on a sudden impulse, pulled out an old shoebox from underneath her bed. On the lid, in blue felt-tip, ten-year-old Hazel had written 'HOGWARTS'. She stared at it thoughtfully for a moment, then lifted the lid. Inside were two old ring-bound reporter's notebooks containing all her notes on the topic, some shaky tracings she'd made from her parents' OS maps of the Highlands, and a drawing she'd copied from one of the few illustrations in _Hogwarts: A History_. 

She picked this last item up and gazed at it. It was a drawing of the castle, with the mountains behind it, and her copy wasn't very good. The original, although it had also been a line drawing, had had little moving figures of students walking around in front of the castle, but Hazel hadn't bothered to copy them. She'd been more interested in the shape of the distinctive-looking mountain in the background, the outline of which she'd imitated carefully, trying to work out which one it was. 

This was the world of magic. She knew that it was there, that it existed alongside her, unknown, unseen and unsuspected by most. Hazel had had glimpses into it, but no more.

But something strange was going on in that world, and it was making her uneasy. Because it wasn't just happening there, it was bleeding into her own world and her own life, into ordinary little Mirlton. And that meant that nobody, not Scorpius, not his parents, not their magical government, had the right to shut Hazel out of it and tell her she couldn't investigate. One way or another, she meant to find out what was going on.

~~~

The owl dropped a letter on Scorpius's plate and he frowned and picked it up. It was in his father's writing and he wondered if it was finally a reply to his tentative questions about the Imperiused Muggle girl.

it wasn't. He scanned over the parchment and felt his heart lurch. The words were brief and to the point; his father's letters always were, but this one even more so. Just a few short sentences that set the whole world whirling around him. 

"Scorpius? Are you okay?" Calypso asked beside him.

He'd never been less okay. But he couldn't stop to talk about it. There was one thing he had to do immediately.

"Family stuff," he said, standing up. "I need to see Issie."

She was sitting with her back to him at the Gryffindor table, with the Longbottom kid and a boy Scorpius thought was called Jake. On the other side of her sat Lily Potter with her friends, engrossed in reading what looked like an essay while she ate her breakfast. Scorpius had walked up to the table hardly thinking about what he was doing, only that he needed to talk to his sister. Now he was faced with a table full of Gryffindors and no space anywhere. He hesitated a moment, but there was nothing for it.

"Hey, Issie?" he said from behind her.

Issie twisted round, and whatever she'd been saying died on her lips as she saw him.

"Oh. Hey, Scorp," she said, a slight question in her voice.

Lily Potter glanced over her shoulder, although her mind seemed to be more on what she was doing, and he thought she hardly registered who he was.

"Sorry," she said vaguely. "Did you want to sit down?" And she shifted up the bench to let him in, already going back to her essay. 

Scorpius hesitated again, then took the seat she'd made for him, sitting sideways on the bench without putting his legs over it. 

"Thanks," he muttered, then turned to Issie, who was still staring at him, open-mouthed. "Listen, Is, I got a letter from Dad. You should see it too."

She took the parchment he held out, her surprise giving way to fear at whatever she read on his face.

"What's happened?" she started, but they were interrupted.

"Hoi, Malfoy!" a voice said loudly. 

Scorpius looked up, to find James Potter standing across the table from him, arms folded.

"Get lost, did you?" Potter demanded with a smirk. "Your table's over there, Malfoy. Why are you sitting here?"

Scorpius gritted his teeth. This was the last thing he needed right now, and he didn't have the energy to pretend not to care. He wanted nothing more than to stand up and punch the smirk off Potter's face as hard as he could, and if there hadn't been a table between them, he might have done it. Then he glanced at Issie, who was staring at the parchment, her face white and stricken, and his anger flooded away. He had more important things to think about.

"Give it a break, Potter," he said quietly, and squeezed Issie's shoulder. "Look, don't worry, Is. It's going to be fine. I'll... I'll see if I can find out what's happening from Dad, and I'll come and find you later, okay?"

Potter opened his mouth, starting to look annoyed, but someone else got there first. 

"Merlin, James," Lily Potter said. "What's the matter with you? Isn't he allowed to talk to his sister?"

Support from such an unexpected source almost pulled Scorpius out of his anxiety, and he stared at her. Potter looked equally gobsmacked, and Scorpius stood up hastily. He didn't want to get dragged into an argument.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'm going. I'll see you later, Issie. And don't freak out, okay? It's going to be alright."

~~~

Lily grabbed the Muggle Studies text book she had forgotten to pick up before breakfast and rushed out of her dormitory. She was going to be late if she didn't hurry.

As she passed the first-year room, though, she heard voices. And one of them was crying. Lily paused, unsure what to do. The door was half open and she glanced inside. Iseult Malfoy sat on the floor between two beds, her knees hugged to her chest, crying hard. Beside her, Alice Longbottom was patting her shoulder and making soothing noises.

At the sight, Lily gave up any thought of slipping tactfully away. She advanced into the room and looked at the two younger girls with concern. "Hey, are you okay?"

Alice looked up, a helpless expression on her face, then bit her lip and looked at Iseult.

"Is this something to do with whatever Mal- your brother was telling you about this morning?" Lily guessed. She hadn't paid much attention, at least until James started being obnoxious, because she'd been rushing to finish the homework she should have done the night before, but something out of the ordinary must have brought Scorpius Malfoy to the Gryffindor table.

Issie gave a choking sob. "M… Mummy's ill… _really_ ill. She… she…" Her voice gave out and she burst into tears again.

"Oh, Iseult, I'm sorry." 

Lily adored her mother and could only imagine how she would feel if anything happened to her. She sat down on the floor, abandoning her text book, and put her arm around the little girl's skinny shoulders. Issie gave a howl at this display of kindness and leaned in to her, burying her face in Lily's shoulder. At this, Lily put both arms around her and hugged her tight, her instinct to comfort overcoming everything else.

"Hey, sshh," she said softly, stroking the little girl's hair. 

She didn't have that much experience with younger children; she and Hugo were the youngest of their extended family except for Lucy, and Lucy was a tough little thing who had never needed looking after. She wished she could think of something to say, but all she could do was provide a pair of big-sisterly arms. She looked over the sleek black head at Alice who was sitting mutely beside them, looking scared.

"What… what exactly's happened?" Lily asked. 

Alice looked worried, and placed a hand on Issie's shoulder.

"Is… Can I tell her?"

Issie nodded her head, her face still buried in Lily's robes.

"Her mum's had a baby," Alice said. "But… but something went wrong. And now her mum and the baby are both really ill. They're at St Mungo's. Her dad sent Scorpius a letter this morning. But they're not allowed to visit yet."

Lily's hazel eyes widened, first in shock at the news, then in sympathy.

"Oh, Issie, that's terrible!" Lily said. "I'm so sorry. But you know, the Healers at St Mungo's are really, really good at what they do. She's in the best place she could be. I'm sure they're doing everything they possibly can."

Issie snuffled gently against her, not seeming entirely convinced, but not arguing.

"Issie," said Alice gently, after a pause. "We're going to be late for Potions."

And Lily was going to be late for Muggle Studies. But what could she do? She couldn't leave them in this state.

"I… I'm not going to Potions," said Issie, sounding stuffy-nosed but defiant.

Alice looked helplessly at Lily, who had never felt less equal to a situation.

"Maybe that's a good idea," she said, with a firmness she didn't feel. "Alice, I think you should take Iseult to your dad, if he isn't teaching just now. In fact, even if he is. Then he can excuse you both from Potions. You ought to tell him about this anyway; he's your Head of House."

Alice nodded, looking relieved. She took Iseult's hand and pulled her gently, and Iseult gave in and got to her feet, scrubbing at her red eyes.

"You'll be all right, won't you? Because I ought to go," Lily said to Alice.

Alice nodded. "Dad's got a free period now. He'll be in his office."

Lily ran to Muggle Studies, but she was still late. Professor Heron looked sternly at her as she came in.

"Good of you to join us, Miss Potter," she said.

"Sorry Professor." Lily slid into a seat beside Freya Robbins, another Gryffindor.

"So I should hope. Don't let it happen again." And the Professor continued her lecture on the Muggle electoral system in Britain.

"What happened to you?" Freya whispered. "You were ahead of me, coming out of breakfast."

"Left my book in the dorm," Lily muttered. "Had to go back for it."

Which was the absolute truth. She didn't see any reason to mention her encounter with the first-years. She would tell Meri later, but she wasn't close enough to Freya to trust her with secrets.

Half way through the lesson, there was a knock on the door, and the head of a second-year Hufflepuff came round it.

"Yes?" Professor Heron snapped.

"Sorry Professor," the boy said. "But Professor Clearwater wants to see Lily Potter in her office, now please."

Every head in the room turned to Lily, who was puzzled. Professor Clearwater? She was the Head of Ravenclaw, and also the Deputy Headmistress. She usually only wanted to talk to people outside her house if they had seriously over-stepped a line. Lily was fairly law-abiding, and could think of nothing she had done to warrant this summons. However, she rose from her seat.

"Sorry, Professor," she apologised to Professor Heron, who sniffed.

"Well, if Professor Clearwater wants to see you, you'd better go, I suppose. You can come and see me later and collect the work you'll have missed."

"Yes, Professor."

What a weird day, Lily thought, as she knocked on Professor Clearwater's door. It was about to get weirder.

When she was admitted, she blinked at the room in front of her. It was full of people. Neville—Professor Longbottom, as she knew him in school—was there, and so was the Head of Slytherin, Professor Sewell, a tall, handsome man whom Lily didn't really know because he taught Arithmancy, a subject she'd never taken. Professor Clearwater sat behind her desk, and Iseult Malfoy and Alice Longbottom were huddled together on a large armchair by the fire, sipping from steaming mugs. And Scorpius Malfoy was there too, standing behind his sister's chair, his fair hair falling into his grey eyes, which looked deeply unhappy.

Lily felt a sudden sinking in her stomach. Mrs Malfoy couldn't have died, could she? No, why would they have sent for her? And Malfoy looked much more worried than grief-stricken.

"Ah, Miss Potter." Professor Clearwater spoke briskly. "Sorry to have taken you away from your lessons. I'm sure you're wondering what this is for. I understand that you spoke to Miss Malfoy and Miss Longbottom earlier, and that they told you certain things regarding Mrs Malfoy's condition. You sent them to Professor Longbottom, which was exceedingly sensible." Professor Clearwater sounded vaguely surprised, as though 'sensible' wasn't really what she'd have expected from Lily. "Of course, it is necessary that the Headmaster and I, as well as the respective Heads of the Houses involved, are made aware of this sort of thing." She sent a slightly disapproving frown at Malfoy, who stared fixedly at the floor. 

"Now," said Professor Clearwater, who somehow managed to make everything she said sound like a well-rehearsed speech. "We understand from Mr Malfoy here that the whole affair is not to be made public quite yet, as I'm sure you will understand." She fixed Lily with a sharp glance. "Have you mentioned this to anybody else, Miss Potter?"

"No, Professor," said Lily honestly.

Scorpius was still looking at the ground, but she thought she saw his shoulders relax. He had probably been worried that she would have spread it all round Gryffindor, she thought with irritation.

"Good, good," said Professor Clearwater. "Well, Miss Potter, may I ask that, for now at least, you keep it to yourself? Clearly, it is an affair of an extremely private nature."

"Of course, Professor. I won't tell anyone." Lily hesitated, then continued. "I'm sorry… I don't want to be nosy, but how _is_ Mrs Malfoy?"

Professor Clearwater looked a little uncertain for the first time.

"Ah…" She glanced at the little group by the fire. "Well, we won't know for certain until Mr Malfoy arrives; we're expecting him by Floo very soon. But I am quite sure that the Healers at St Mungo's are doing their very best."

At that moment, the fire turned green and a man Lily recognised from the platform at King's Cross stepped out. Whenever Lily had seen him, he had always been immaculately turned out, but now he looked dishevelled, as though he had been sleeping in his clothes, and he had large shadows under his eyes. He retained his dignity, however, and looked around the room, fixing first Professor Longbottom and then Lily with looks of intense dislike.

"What are all these people doing here?" he asked coldly.

"Mr Malfoy." Professor Clearwater looked a little shocked, though whether at Draco Malfoy's appearance or by his rudeness, Lily was not sure. However, she didn't get a chance to go any further.

"Daddy!" Iseult squirmed out from the chair, dropped her mug (fortunately, Professor Longbottom's wand reflexes were fast enough to catch it before it spilt its contents all over Alice and the chair) and flung herself at the man.

"Iseult." He embraced her a little stiffly, and shot a look at Professor Longbottom that was both embarrassed and angry.

"Dad!" Iseult looked pleadingly up at him. "Dad, I'm sorry… Please don't be angry!"

He stared at her, uncomprehending.

"Sorry? Sorry for what? Why should I be angry? What have you done?"

Her dark blue eyes grew wide. "Because… because I'm in Gryffindor," she whispered.

Draco Malfoy passed a hand in front of his eyes and Lily felt sorry for him. Whatever he felt about his daughter's house, he had more important things to worry about just now. But it was obviously a pretty important issue for Iseult.

Again, he cast that angry-embarrassed look around the room. Lily guessed that he wasn't the sort of person who liked to have family affairs made public in this way.

"Issie," he said at last, then hesitated. "Are you happy in Gryffindor?" he finished at last.

She looked at him a little fearfully, as though afraid she might give the wrong answer. Then she nodded. His mouth twitched into the semblance of a smile.

"Well, it isn't necessarily what we expected. But if you do well in Gryffindor, Iseult, then nobody is going to mind too much." He looked over at his son. "Hello, Scorpius." 

"Hey, Dad. How's Mum?"

Pain flickered across Draco Malfoy's face. "Not well," he said, heavily. "But stable. They say she'll be all right."

"What about the baby?" demanded Issie.

"Must we have this conversation in front of an audience?" Mr Malfoy demanded, looking around. "Nobody's told me yet why there are so many people here."

"Well, Mr Malfoy," Professor Clearwater said, "Professor Longbottom and Professor Sewell are here as the respective Heads of your children's houses. It was Professor Longbottom who informed me of this situation, and it was necessary, of course, that Professor Sewell also be informed that one of his students is undergoing an emotionally traumatic experience. Miss Longbottom here confided in by your daughter and has very kindly been accompanying her in this distressing time. Miss Potter," she looked at Lily, "also heard the story from your daughter, and sensibly advised her to inform Professor Longbottom. I have summoned her here to ask her, as I am sure you would wish, not to spread the story around the school. She has promised to abide by this."

Draco Malfoy looked at Lily with a slight sneer on his face, and looked as though he might have said something, but he didn't.

"If… if that's all, Professor, maybe I should go," Lily suggested.

Professor Clearwater nodded. "Yes, I think that would be best, Miss Potter. And you as well, Miss Longbottom, if you've finished your drink. I'm sure you don't want to miss more lessons than you have to."

Alice got up with a sigh.

"Come on, Lal." Lily put an arm round the little girl's shoulders.

"I'll see you later, Issie," Alice told her friend. "I hope everything's okay."

Issie gave her a wobbly smile. "Yeah, see you later. And…" She touched Lily timidly on the arm. "Thanks, Lily. For before. Sorry I cried all over you."

Lily smiled down at her. "That's okay. Don't worry about it."

As they walked back along the corridors, Alice said, "Lily, what are we going to tell people? Everyone's going to ask where we've been."

Shit. They were, as well. Lily thought about it, frowning. Deviousness wasn't her strong point; she was a hopeless liar. Then she made up her mind.

"Personally," she said with a small smile, "I'm going to tell the truth."

"Lily! We can't!"

"If anyone asks me," Lily went on, "I'm going to tell them I can't tell them, because Professor Clearwater told me not to. It probably won't stop them asking, but if that's what you stick to, they can't force you to tell them."

Alice looked worried. "I'm not very good at keeping secrets."

"Neither am I." Lily smiled ruefully and thought she'd have to be very careful not to just blurt something out without thinking.

Lily left Alice to go off for her Flying lesson, and arrived at Charms to find her class waiting outside for the fifth-years to come out. Freya was there, and also Meri, who had been released from St Mungo's a few days before, and had returned to school apparently none the worse for her ordeal, although she still had a disturbing blank in her memory.

"Lil!" Meri exclaimed. "What happened?"

"I brought your things," added Freya, holding out Lily's bag.

"Thanks," said Lily. "I can't tell you what it was, though. Clearwater told me not to."

The others stared at her in surprise.

"But…" began Freya, but at that moment the fifth-years streamed out of the classroom, and anything else she might have lost was lost in the general hubbub of changing classes.

~~~

"Harry!" Ginny burst into her husband's study.

Harry looked up, startled, from Ron's latest report on the case of the Muggle child in Mirlton. Ginny's hair was escaping from the clip it was in and she was in a great hurry, but her wide beam told him there was nothing terrible to worry about.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

She waved a piece of parchment at him.

"This just came by owl! It's from Luna!"

He stared at her, not sure why that fact should have excited her so much. Since the time, more than ten years ago now, that Luna had disappeared into the Malaysian jungle and reappeared a year later, after everyone had assumed that she was dead, they had insisted that she wrote to them regularly. Of course, now that she had Rolf and the little boys, she would find disappearing acts more difficult, but she still wrote to them often, from whichever far flung part of of the world she and Rolf were in. It was Alaska at the moment, Harry remembered. Right up in the north, doing some work on... well, he couldn't remember, but he remembered Luna telling him earnestly about it. They had been there two years now, and the twins would be growing up.

"She's coming back!" Ginny announced. "We're actually going to see them all!"

Harry shook his head out of Auror business at this news.

"That's great!" he said enthusiastically, getting up from his desk. "When? And how long for?"

Ginny looked at the letter in her hand.

"Well, you know Luna. She's always a bit vague. But she says they'll be back next month. That's November." She looked at Harry with shining eyes. "They'll be back in time for Christmas! Oh, I can't wait to see Luna again! And according to this, they're coming back for good. Or at least for the immediate future. Rolf's got some post with MINA and Luna's talking about writing a book. Of course, this is Luna and Rolf, so who knows how long before their plans change. But she's asking me if I'd mind possibly looking for a house they could rent. They sold the last one, you know, before they took off to Alaska. And she wants to know what we're all doing for Christmas." Ginny looked up. "What _are_ we all doing for Christmas?"

Harry shrugged. "I've no idea. Your parents are going to see Charlie in Romania, aren't they? So it won't be at the Burrow. I suppose we could ask everyone here."

"And Luna and Rolf could come too," Ginny agreed. "That's a lovely idea. I'm not sure the house is big enough if everyone comes, but we'll manage something. We ought to have Neville and Hannah too, if Luna's going to be here."

Harry laughed. "I suppose we ought. Should we invite the whole of the DA while we're about it? On second thoughts, the house might burst at the seams if we did that. And don't count your chickens before they're hatched. As you say, this is Luna and Rolf. Let's see if they actually turn up before we start making big plans. They might discover a rare Snow Hippogriff and decide they have to stay. But I suppose in the meantime, we should assume they are coming, and start finding them somewhere to live. Otherwise we'll have all four of them camped out indefinitely in our spare room, and fond as I am of Luna, I'm not sure I could cope with the amount of chaos that would cause."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MINA is the Magical International Naturalists' Association, and it's my own invention. It features in a story I'll be putting on here soon, about how Luna and Rolf met.


	8. Plots and Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A party is planned, an illegal potion is brewed, and Hazel does some more detective work.

"Malfoy!"

The annual Hallowe'en Feast was over, and Scorpius had been returning to his common room, but at the sound of his name he stopped and turned around to see Lily Potter hurrying behind him. He scowled, and his scowl deepened as Xanthe Derrick, his fellow sixth-year Slytherin and Quidditch teammate, looked round and giggled.

"Go on then, Scorpius," Xanthe called. "Go and see your little Gryffindor girlfriend. Looks like she's pretty desperate to talk to you."

Scorpius ignored her and waited for Lily.

"What?" he growled, as she drew level with him, a little out of breath.

Xanthe and her friends were still standing nearby, smirking and obviously intending to listen. Lily looked at them, and flicked her wand.

" _Muffliato_."

The girls looked irritated at the sudden buzzing noise that filled their ears, but there was nothing they could do, so they moved off, shooting dirty looks at the pair. Scorpius stared at Lily in outrage.

"What the hell are you playing at, Potter? Are you _trying_ to make them think there's something going on with us?"

Lily stared at him with wide eyes. "Of course not. Why would they think that? Anyway, I'm sorry," she went on, "but I had to talk to you. You can just tell them I was being weird, if you want. How's your mum?"

"Better," Scorpius muttered. "And you could have found that out from my sister."

"All right." Lily looked hurt. "I was only trying to be nice. Actually, I did ask Issie. She said… she said the baby was still ill."

Scorpius folded his arms, trying to ignore the painful squeeze of his chest.

"Yes," he said, abruptly. "Was that all?"

"No, actually." Lily looked a little abashed, and spoke quickly. "I was going to ask… I know you don't want anybody to know, so the answer's probably no, but I was just wondering if it would be okay for me to tell Meri Hewitt about it all?"

"Okay, if you must," he said with a sigh.

"I'd only tell her," Lily rushed on, "and she's very good at keeping secrets, much better than me; she'd never tell anybody at all, I promise she wouldn't. Only she's my best friend and I can't keep secrets from her, and Issie's told Alice Longbottom and Jake Nelson… Wait. Did you say yes?"

He was looking at her, almost amused.

"Yes, I said yes." 

"But… but why?"

He shrugged. "Well, if you know, I don't see any harm in Hewitt knowing. You say she's good at keeping secrets. I believe you. She seems like that type. Just don't go telling Hugo Weasley."

"I won't," she said slowly, "Thanks, Malfoy. It's hard, keeping something secret from your best friend. She hasn't asked, since I told her Clearwater said I couldn't tell anybody. But she's being a bit off with me, and I know she minds that I haven't told her. Thanks."

"'S okay," he muttered. "You could have just told her anyway, but you waited to ask me. I appreciate that."

Lily smiled at him suddenly. "I'm glad I was right," she said.

"What? Right about what?" he asked.

"Well, I told my dad and Uncle Ron you were okay. James shouted at me, so I'm glad I was right."

Scorpius stared at her, then laughed suddenly, surprising himself a little.

"Well, thanks, I suppose. You're not so bad yourself. For a Potter." He half went to move off, then hesitated. "Potter… look out for Issie, will you? She likes you; she said you were nice to her. She's not having the easiest time. The Slytherins in her year keep having a go at her, and I don't think all her Gryffindor classmates are exactly happy to have her there. Oh, and tell your brother that if he upsets her again…"

"That I'll hex him into next week," Lily finished, grinning at him. "Although I don't think it'd scare him much. He's much better at hexes than me. But he isn't that bad, honestly he isn't. He'd never upset her deliberately. He felt really bad after what happened. Anyway, I don't see why you didn't just give him a detention. You are a prefect, after all. You could have been putting him in detention all last year. Anyway, I hope the baby gets better. Really. See you around, Malfoy." And she turned on her heel and waltzed off up the corridor.

~~~

Mission accomplished, Lily headed back to her own Common Room, humming to herself. Of course, it was horrible about the Malfoys' little brother being ill, but it did seem like the news was getting better. She heard it quite regularly from Iseult, who now seemed to think of Lily as a friend. Indeed, she appeared to have developed some sort of slight hero-worship, which confused Lily more than a bit; she'd never had that from a younger kid before, although she didn't mind too much. It annoyed James too, which was always a plus. James was irritating her at the moment; he'd had a proper go at Zeke after the Hogsmeade trip, and then when Lily had confronted him about it, had had the nerve to act like he was in the right, and had just been protecting her or something stupid. As if she needed _protecting_ from Zeke Lucas! Did James still think she was a baby? She was nearly fifteen, for Merlin's sake!

That thought brought her to a more pleasant one, though, which was that it was almost her birthday. Her parents had promised her the newest Lightstrike broom, which had only come out in July, meaning that James didn't own it yet. Their first game of the year, and her first on the team, was going to be two days after her birthday, so she hoped that Mum and Dad would find a way to get it to her in time.

She came into the common room to find Alice Longbottom dancing around in front of her.

"Lily, Lily, Lily! When's your birthday?"

Lily stared at the younger girl, her gaze flickering to the two other first-years who were, as usual, close beside Alice.

"November. You know that already—you used to come to my birthday parties when we were little!"

"Yes, but which day is it _exactly_?" Alice persisted. "I can't remember."

"It's the fourteenth," Lily said, bemused. "Why, what's so amazing about that?" she added, as Alice let out a squeak of excitement.

Issie had blushed red, although she was smiling shyly.

"That's my birthday too," she said. "I told Alice and Jake, and Alice said yours was some time around then too."

"I _thought_ it was the fourteenth," Alice said triumphantly. "You can have a joint party!"

Lily stared at her, slightly disconcerted by this revelation. A joint party? Issie was a nice kid, but she was three years younger than Lily.

"Lal, the fourteenth is a Monday. We've got lessons."

"We could have it on the Saturday!" Alice made puppy-dog eyes at Lily. "Or in the evening."

Lily looked at Issie. She looked a bit uncertain, but also hopeful. When Lily looked at her, she smiled questioningly. Lily hated disappointing people.

"Well, okay," she said, wondering what she was letting herself in for, and was rewarded by a beam from Issie and a hug from Alice.

She left the first-years to talk excitedly about birthdays and parties, and wandered across to where Meri was frowning over a Transfiguration essay due for the next day. Lily hadn't done it either, but she was putting it off. She sat down, still smiling ruefully. Meri looked up and raised her eyebrows.

"What's the matter?"

Lily giggled. "I've just agreed to share a birthday party with Iseult Malfoy. Her birthday's the same day as mine." She would wait until they were somewhere a bit more private before bringing up what she had to tell Meri about the Malfoys.

Meri also laughed. "You're sharing a birthday party with a kid who's turning twelve? What are we going to play, Musical Chairs?" 

Lily shrugged. "Well, why not?" she said. "Musical Chairs is fun, and I haven't played for years."

"So, a joint party for you and Iseult Malfoy?" Meri said, grinning. "You know, I can't wait to hear what James says about this."

~~~

The following day, James caught Rose just as she was leaving the Common Room.

"Any luck yet?" he muttered to her.

She looked coolly at him. "You're making even less sense than usual. Any luck with what?"

James rolled his eyes. "The potion, Rose, what d'you think?"

She glanced around herself at the other students nearby.

"Is this the time and place to be having this conversation? And anyway, I'm in a hurry."

"Well, it can wait, whatever it is," he said firmly, taking her arm and steering her away from the Portrait Hole. "You said you'd look into it. Have you?"

She sighed, removing her arm from his grasp.

"Yes. And you can be bloody grateful to me, Jamie, because I had to forge a note and get a book out of the Restricted Section..."

"And?" he interrupted. "What did you find? Can you do it?"

She shrugged. "I don't know until I try. I don't even know if I can get all the ingredients. I'll have to send away for some, so you can give me some money for that, if you really want this enough." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Does Fenella know about this?" 

James grinned. "What do you think?"

"I'm going to guess not."

"You're going to guess right," he confirmed. "Fen's up for things to a certain point. This would cross it."

"Well, anyway," Rose went on. "I'll give it a go. But it won't be ready until after Christmas."

"After Christmas?" He stared at her in dismay. "But it's only just November!"

She shrugged again. "I can't make it any faster than that. I have to get the ingredients, then you have to leave it to simmer for weeks. Your choice. D'you want me to do it, or not?"

He hesitated, then made up his mind. "Yeah, let's go for it," he said at last. "How much money d'you need?"

"I don't know yet," she told him. "I'll let you know."

And with that, she turned and left, before he could grab her again.

James turned thoughtfully away, and found himself face to face with Louis, who looked expectantly at him.

"Well?"

James nodded. "She's doing it. But it won't be ready until after Christmas."

Louis frowned. "After Christmas? Do we really want to wait that long? Wouldn't it be easier just to..."

"To what?" James looked challengingly at his cousin. "You have a better idea?" He went on, as Louis floundered. "Nah, this is the best way. Because this way, we not only get it back, we get revenge as well. And I can't wait to see Rose's face when she finds out what she really brewed Veriteserum for."

Louis grinned. "That will be pretty good," he acknowledged, then looked quizzically at James, who was frowning to himself. "What's the matter?"

"Just wishing we could tell Fen," James said. "I mean all I told her was that I was going to find out who had the map—I didn't tell her how. It doesn't feel right keeping secrets from her, though."

Louis thought for a moment. "Yeah, but if you think about it, if we told her what we were doing, she wouldn't want to stop us, but she'd have to, because she's Head Girl. It would only stress her out. This way, she's happy. We're being good friends, not giving her the choice to make. She'd probably rather not know."

He grinned at James, who made a face.

"Well, I suppose so. We can't tell her anyway. At least, not until it's all done and there's nothing she can do about it."

"By the way," Louis said, changing the subject. "I spoke to Hugo a while ago. Have you heard about Lily's birthday party?"

James stared at him. "What? Lily's having a party and she didn't tell me? Some sister she is!"

"What, worried you got left off the invite list?" Louis grinned at him. "Well, you might have done. The person she's sharing it with isn't your biggest fan, I don't think."

James frowned, confused. "She's sharing it with someone? Who else has a birthday just now?"

"Well..." Louis said, with exaggerated patience. "Let's think about it. Who is new this year so we wouldn't know when her birthday is, has apparently recently developed a girl-crush on Lily, and has a good reason to dislike you, Jamie?"

~~~

Hazel let herself into her house, humming to herself. Her father looked up from the stove, where he was cooking dinner, and raised his eyebrows at her.

"You look cheerful," he commented.

She smiled, breaking off her humming and shrugging her jacket off. "Yeah. We're going on a field trip next term, for Geography. Oh, and I called in at the Malfoys' on the way home," she added.

"Oh yes?" Her dad looked at her. "And what makes you think we can afford to pay for you to go jetting off on a glorified holiday?" He grinned at her, making it clear that he was teasing, then looked serious. "How are they getting on then? What's Scorpius's mum called again? Astrid, is it? Is she doing all right?"

"It's Astoria," Hazel corrected him, slinging her school bag onto a chair. "And yes. She's still at the hospital, but she doesn't really need to be for herself; it's because the baby still needs looking after. But I saw Scorpius's dad, and I gave him the card I got for them. He didn't say much, but I think the baby's out of danger, just being monitored still. And the Geography trip won't cost much anyway," she went on. "We're not going abroad anywhere. We don't know where we are going, but it'll be somewhere in Britain."

And that, she thought, once she had escaped from him and was taking the stairs two at a time up towards her bedroom, was why she was so excited.

"We're going to be doing glaciation next term," Miss Anderson had said. "And there are quite a few glaciated landscapes around the British Isles. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them."

Someone had said the Lake District, which was practically on their doorstep, but that had been cried down. They had all been to the Lake District before, and the general desire had been for somewhere further afield. So Hazel had mentioned the Cairngorms. Miss Anderson had been enthusiastic, and the rest of the class had been open to the idea. Hazel had promised to have a look for somewhere they could all stay. She doubted that would be much of a problem. There were Youth Hostels and backpacking places all over the Highlands.

Hazel still intended to find out what had happened to Fiona Murphy, although she'd had to put her questions on hold what with Astoria and the baby being in hospital. The Christmas holidays were in a matter of weeks, and she could get some answers out of Scorpius when she saw him. But today's development was something different. This was a possible chance to fulfil something she'd dreamt of since childhood.

Once more, she pulled out her Hogwarts shoebox. This time, she was interested in her notebook and the OS maps. During her obsessed years, she had written down every clue she could find in _Hogwarts: A History_ about the castle's location. She had a lot of information, but ultimately she'd been unable to get past the brick walls. Hogwarts was not on any map. It would not be on any normal photograph or drawing of the Highlands. Even if she went there, all she would see would be ruins, or so Scorpius said. And the only place she knew for certain was nearby was the village of Hogsmeade, which wasn't on her maps either. 

She'd failed when she was twelve. But maybe she could do a better job now. 

Turning her laptop on and waiting for it to warm up, she flicked through the notebook. There were all sorts of notes about the geography of the castle, and the position of the forest and the lake. She'd even drawn a sketch map of the layout, based on pictures and descriptions. The position of the hills around it, the castle itself, and the forest and lake. Eight hours, Scorpius had once told her it took to get from Kings Cross to Hogwarts. She didn't know how fast the train went, but from everything Scorpius had told her, it was just a steam train, although a big one.

She opened her browser and typed a few phrases into the search bar, scanning the results that came up. Okay, so the Hogwarts Express was probably quite a fast steam train as they went, which meant it would travel at around 85 miles per hour. And with an 8 hour journey, ending somewhere in the central highlands... Hazel grabbed her phone and put some quick multiplications into the calculator, which she wrote down in the notebook. Then she pulled her old child's atlas off the shelf, and opened it to the picture of the British Isles. Her gran had given it to her years ago, and she hardly used it, because Google Maps existed, but it was easier to look at distances and ranges on a page than on a screen. She got her long ruler and started to measure.

It was narrowing down. Now she just had to look for a place with a forest and a lake, and a mountain to form the backdrop, a mountain in the particular shape she'd copied in that drawing. For that she needed more detailed maps than were in the atlas, or even online, so she hopped off her bed and headed downstairs to the bookshelf in the hall, where her parents kept their OS map collection. She ran her finger along the spines, hunting for the right ones.

"You all right, love?" Her dad crossed the passage behind her, from the living room back to the kitchen. "Dinner's going to be ready in about fifteen minutes, okay? Your mum's on her way home."

"Okay, that's fine," Hazel said, absently, still looking at the maps. 

Then she stopped. She still had her drawing in her hand, and maybe Dad could help. He was the mountaineer of the family, after all. He was always telling her how he'd spent his youth Munro-bagging. 

"Hey, Dad," she said, standing up and looking in through the kitchen door. "I'm trying to work out what mountain this is."

"What mountain what is?" He turned from stirring the chilli, his eyebrows raised.

Hazel held out the drawing. "I drew this years ago. I made up the castle," she lied casually, "but I copied the hill from something, I just can't remember what. And I was doing research for the field trip, and now it's bugging me until I can remember."

Her dad crossed to her, took the bit of paper and frowned at it. "Hm. Hard to tell from a drawing, but I _think_ I know it. If it's the one I'm thinking of, I climbed it once. It's just off the road between Inverness and Ullapool. Can't remember the name, but hold on." He bent down to the row of maps and pulled one out. "Here you go. Should be on this one. You open it out, I've been cooking and my hands aren't clean."

Hazel spread the map, and her dad pored over it for a moment or two. 

"There, I think that's the one I'm thinking of. Am Faochagach. It's not one of the more famous Munros, and it's tricky to get to. The approach is all bog; you've got to be careful not to walk in the wrong place." He looked at her. "Wonder what on earth made you pick that one to draw."

Hazel shrugged, still looking at the map. "Dunno. But thanks, Dad."

Upstairs again, with the OS spread on her bed, she did an image search for the unpronounceable Gaelic name of the mountain her dad had pointed out. It did look very similar to the outline she'd drawn. Was it the right one? Hazel examined the map again. The mountain was quite far in the background of the picture, so the castle wouldn't be very close to it. But there, not too far away, was a lochan on the edge of a forest, and right beside it, she saw with rising excitement, there was something marked simply, 'Ruins'. 

For a moment, Hazel stared at it. She might be wrong. And if she was right, Scorpius might be angry that she'd even tried to work it out. But the chance was too incredible to miss. Even if she could never see the castle itself, just to know where it was would be something. Plus, if she could convince Miss Anderson that this was a good place for them to go, she might even get to meet up with Scorpius.

The nearest village she could see was called Kilmary. Hazel clenched her jaw, typed the name into her search, along with 'hostel'. It gave her a couple of results, and she hit print on them. Whether she was wrong or right about the exact location, she was going to the Cairngorms. She was going Hogwarts-hunting.

~~~

Xanthe Derrick might be a genius on the Quidditch pitch, but she was also a gossip. If she didn't know something, Dannicus Urquhart had said once, she would just make it up. It didn't take her long to spread it around the Slytherin Common Room that Scorpius Malfoy and Lily Potter were having a secret fling. Then, just to make sure, she persuaded Desdemona Dimitar, a fourth-year and her fellow Chaser, to write a note about the story, levitate it across the Transfiguration classroom towards Sycorax Montague one day, and 'accidentally' drop it in front of Hugo Weasley.

That accomplished, she felt that her job was more or less done, and she sat back to watch the drama unfold.


End file.
